Content aggregator

ABSTRACT

A system of one or more processors receives information from a computing device associated with a user profile, the information identifying a first list of content items including first episode in a series. The system determines that the first episode has been played using a content state of the first episode. The system determines a second list of content items, including a second episode in the series as an unsolicited content item and removing the first episode from the second list. The system sends the second list to the computing device and the computing device deletes the first episode and downloads the second episode in the series without first receiving a download request from a user or application of the computing device.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/852,607, filed Sep. 13, 2015, the entire contents of which areincorporated by reference herein.

BACKGROUND

Storage space is an important issue for mobile devices and otherresource constrained devices. Mobile devices, which have a variety ofstorage sizes and capabilities, are increasingly being used forconsumption of electronic content. A typical user may downloadindividual content items as the user wishes to consume the contentitems. Often, digital devices have available storage space to storeadditional pieces of content after the user spends time searching forand downloading those that match the user's personal preferences.Embodiments discuss here provide technical solutions to problemsintroduced by these computer systems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The embodiments described herein will be understood more fully from thedetailed description given below and from the accompanying drawings. Thedrawings should not be taken to limit the application to the specificembodiments, but are for explanation and understanding only.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example network architecture showingan example exchange between an aggregator service and a device, inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example network architecture including adevice with an unsolicited content manager connected to a server systemwith an aggregator service, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a logical view of a device, in accordancewith one embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a logical view of an aggregator service, inaccordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example device with anunsolicited content manager, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a server computing device with anaggregator service, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method of predicting thesize of a free space buffer threshold.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method of increasing afree space buffer threshold when data is written faster than it can bedeleted.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method of adjusting afree space buffer threshold using historical information associated withan application.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method of determining apredicted maximum amount of storage space of a device to be consumedduring a future time period.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method of adjusting asize of a free space buffer threshold.

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method of determining afree space buffer threshold according to a device download speed.

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method of modifying afree space buffer threshold based on changes in observed storage usage.

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method of managingcontent across multiple devices.

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method of sending anotification to a second device responsive to activity on a firstdevice.

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method of creating amodified list of content for a device.

FIG. 17 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method of managingcontent for a profile stored across multiple devices.

FIG. 18 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method of managingelectronic content across multiple devices.

FIG. 19 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method of causingunsolicited electronic content to be deleted from multiple devices.

FIG. 20 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method of managingunsolicited content on multiple devices.

FIG. 21 is a diagram of an embodiment of a list of electronic contentfor multiple profiles associated with a device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Devices may incorporate a large amount of available storage space thatcan remain unused until a user actively downloads content. Embodimentsprovide a system for determining content items that a user is likely tobe interested in and preloading the content items (referred to asunsolicited content items) onto a device associated with a user accountor profile of the user. Preloading content items onto a device mayincrease a user experience by reducing an amount of time that a userwaits to begin consuming the content items. Additionally, the user mayaccess and consume the preloaded content items even when the devicelacks network access.

Preloading of content onto a device presents numerous challenges. Forexample, preloaded content may or may not be relevant to a user thatuses a device. Thus, a storage space of a device may be filled withcontent that is not of interest to a user. Additionally, loading toomuch content onto a device may reduce free space to a point where theperformance of the device can be impacted. This may cause an operatingsystem to alert the user to delete content manually, which degrades auser experience.

Embodiments described herein provide an unsolicited content manager thatcan manage unsolicited content that was preloaded onto a device. Theunsolicited content manager interfaces with a download manager to causethe download manager to download the unsolicited content items into anunsolicited content storage area, and maintains a free space buffer thatis sized to ensure that there is enough available storage space (afterthe unsolicited content storage area is filled) to enable a user todownload desired content. The unsolicited content storage arearepresents a first area of a storage component of the device and thefree space buffer represents a second area of the storage component. Theunsolicited content manager may then begin sending instructions to thestorage component to delete the unsolicited preloaded content from theunsolicited content storage area to maintain the free space buffer assolicited content and other content is added to the storage component.Thus, the free space buffer may enable the unsolicited content managerto automatically have unsolicited content removed from the unsolicitedcontent storage area while the device is in use without impactingperformance or user experience.

To determine a free space buffer size, the unsolicited content managermay identify configuration data associated with a device. Thisconfiguration data may include information describing the capabilitiesof the device (e.g., default write and delete speeds of a storagecomponent) and/or default operating system settings. The unsolicitedcontent manager may compare the configuration data to storage usage datacollected over a period of time by a storage monitor, and subsequentlydetermine a maximum amount of storage space that the device can beexpected to consume in a future time period based on previous activityand/or storage component status. The storage usage data may include anobserved write speed observed over the period of time. The unsolicitedcontent manager may then set a free space buffer threshold for the freespace buffer of the device to account for the maximum amount of storagespace that the device can be expected to consume in the future timeperiod. Thus, the unsolicited content manager may maintain a level offree space on the device to accommodate user downloaded content andother content while minimizing any degradation of device performancewhile the user either consumes the content downloaded, or downloadsadditional content.

Further embodiments herein provide an aggregator service that can curatecontent from multiple sources, proactively generate lists of unsolicitedcontent for a user profile of a user based on user preferences anddevice capabilities, and manage unsolicited content for the user profileacross multiple devices that share the user profile. The aggregatorservice can receive information describing the state of unsolicitedcontent stored on a device associated with a user profile. Theaggregator service may then curate content from multiple sourceproviders based on known user preferences and available free space on adevice, and send the curated list to the device for subsequent download.Additionally, the aggregator service may use the information describingthe state of the unsolicited content on the device to determine whetherthe same unsolicited content is stored on other devices associated withthe same user profile, and subsequently instruct the other devices toremove that unsolicited content based on user activity on the device.Thus, unsolicited content may be seamlessly managed for a user profileacross all of the devices associated with that user profile.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram depicting an illustrative networkarchitecture 100 showing an example exchange between an aggregatorservice 104 and a device 102, in accordance with embodiments of thedisclosure. The network architecture 100 may include one or more devices102 (e.g., devices 102-A, 102-B) associated with a profile 101, andconnected to the aggregator service 104 via one or more networks 112.While various illustrative components of the network architecture 100may be described herein in the singular, it should be appreciated thatmultiple ones of any such components may be provided in various exampleembodiments of the disclosure.

The device 102 may be a mobile computing device such as an electronicbook reader, tablet computer, cellular telephone, personal digitalassistant (PDAs), portable media player, netbook, laptop computer,portable gaming console, motor vehicle (e.g., automobiles), wearabledevice (e.g., smart watch), removable storage device, and so on. Thedevice 102 may also be a traditionally non-portable computing devicesuch as a television set top box, a smart television, a desktopcomputer, a backup storage device, an edge server, a wireless router,and/or any other device that can store user content and/or other data.Device 102 may be configured with functionality to enable consumption ofone or more types of electronic content. For example, device 102 mayreceive electronic content items, including data representing e-books,movies, television shows, photographs, periodicals, etc. from a serviceprovider system such as aggregator service 104. Device 102-A device102-B may be different types of devices that are capable of consumingdifferent types of electronic content. For example, device 102-A may bea television set top device, and device 102-B may be an electronicreader.

In some embodiments, devices 102 may be associated with a single userprofile and a single user account. For example, devices 102-A and 102-Bmay be associated with the same user profile (referred to herein simplyas profile 101). The profile 101 defines the attributes, properties,behaviors, and preferences of a user and may include an email addressassociated with a user, a username, password, user preferences, metadataindicating past activity associated with the profile (e.g., pastpurchases, past consumption of content items, past sharing behavior, andso on), etc. The user account may define account properties associatedwith a particular profile 101 or with multiple profiles that are grouped(e.g., profiles of family members in a family). The user account mayinclude financial payment information, an address to ship purchases to,a list of devices 102, a list of profiles associated with the useraccount, and so on.

In some embodiments, devices 102 may be associated with multipleprofiles, all of which may be associated with a common user account. Forexample, devices 102 may be associated with profile 101 as well as anadditional profile (not pictured). In a further example, a family mayinclude a mom, a dad and a child, and the family may share a single useraccount that is associated with device 102-A and device 102-B. The useraccount may additionally be associated with a first profile for the mom,a second profile for the dad and a third profile for the child. Theprofile for the child may have certain content restrictions (e.g., noadult content can be displayed when the child is logged into the childprofile). Additionally, the child profile may include time limits on theamount of non-educational content that can be consumed. The account'spurchasing privileges and/or data may be restricted to certain profiles(e.g., to the mom's profile and the dad's profile) or need authorizationfrom certain profiles.

Multiple devices 102-A and 102-B may share the same profile 101 (orprofiles). A profile is shared by multiple devices if those devices areeach associated with a user account that includes that profile. Thus, auser associated with the profile may own and use any of the devices thatare indicated in the user account.

A device 102 may display, play, or otherwise output electronic content(e.g., to enable a user to read, view, listen to, or otherwise consumethe content. The term content as used herein refers to any publication(e.g., any written work), video, audio, application (app), game, orother media item stored in a digital format. Examples of electroniccontent include electronic publications (e.g., electronic versions ofwritten works such as electronic books (e-books), electronic newspapers,electronic periodicals, electronic textbooks, electronic journals,electronic magazines, etc.), videos (e.g., music videos, videodocumentaries, movies, episodes of television series), and so forth.Other examples of content include digital audio books, real simplesyndication (RSS) feeds, computer games, applications (“apps”) installedon device 102, and so forth.

Content may be stored on the device 102-A in a device storage 130.Device storage 130 may include a free space buffer 132 (e.g., storagespace on device 102-A that is not used for unsolicited content),standard content 133 and designated unsolicited content storage area(referred to simply as unsolicited content storage area 134). Standardcontent 133 may include operating system files, downloaded apps, usergenerated content, and/or other downloaded content.

The unsolicited content storage area 134 represents the portion ofdevice storage 130 that is filled with unsolicited content that has beenpreloaded onto the devices 102. Unsolicited electronic content iscontent such as movies, ebooks, music albums or songs, etc. that areidentified by the unsolicited content manager as being of likelyinterest to a user and that has been downloaded onto the device andstored in the unsolicited content storage area 134. Unsolicited contentmay be downloaded and stored in the unsolicited content area 134 withoutthe devices 102 first receiving a download request from a user, or froman application running at an application layer on the devices 102. Freespace buffer 132 may be managed dynamically by components of devices 102in order to optimize adding and deleting unsolicited content items toand from unsolicited content storage area 134 without impactingperformance of devices 102.

In embodiments, unsolicited content may be deleted from unsolicitedcontent storage area 134 responsive to other content being added tostandard content 133. Standard content 133 includes all content otherthan unsolicited content. Examples of standard content 133 includepodcast data or feed data from podcasts or feeds that a user profile hassubscribed to, content that a user has explicitly requested to bedownloaded, incoming emails, and other messages, and so on. Unsolicitedcontent manager may reduce a size of the unsolicited content storagearea 134 and delete unsolicited content responsive to any such additionsto standard content (e.g., when an email is received, data is receivedfrom a feed, a user requests download of content, and so on).

Free space buffer 132 may be managed so that an application may addcontent to, or delete content from, the standard content 133 withoutregard to the contents of unsolicited content storage area 134. Forexample, if a camera application that can capture and store bursts ofhigh resolution photos to standard content 133 in a short period of timeis executed, free space buffer 132 may be increased dynamically toaccommodate the expected storage needs of the application. Thus, a useror application does not need to take any affirmative action to removecontent items from unsolicited content storage area 134 to make room forcontent items in standard content 133. Accordingly, the existence of theunsolicited content storage area 134 and the unsolicited content istransparent to a user and to applications running on devices 102.

Devices 102 can receive electronic content, search results, upgrades,and/or other information from aggregator service 104 via the network112. For example, device 102-A may download or receive e-books, movies,television shows, etc. from the aggregator service 104 (e.g., one ormore content items 110). Additionally, device 102-A may receive lists ofcontent for a profile 101 (e.g., aggregated content list 108 for a userprofile), notifications from aggregator service to remove content, orother similar information. Aggregator service 104 may receive variousrequests (e.g., requests for content), profile or device relatedinformation (e.g., device state 106), or similar information from device102-A via network 112.

Aggregator service 104 corresponds to any functionality or combinationof functionality for providing lists of unsolicited content to one ormore devices 102. Aggregator service 104 can be a component ofnetwork-accessible server-based functionality (e.g., a media server),various data stores, and/or other data processing equipment. Aggregatorservice 104 may be a component of one or more machines (e.g., one ormore server computer systems, routers, gateways, etc.) that haveprocessing and storage capabilities to provide server-basedfunctionality.

In one embodiment, aggregator service 104 may communicate with one ormore content sources 120 (e.g., content sources 120-A, 120-B). Contentsources 120 may correspond to any source of electronic content (e.g.,video, audio, e-books, periodicals, etc.). Aggregator service 104 mayobtain ranked lists of content for profile 101 based on the type ofcontent stored in content sources 120. The ranked lists may be lists ofcurated content that has been selected by the content source for theuser profile 101 based on data from the user profile 101 and/oradditional data that the content sources 120 have about the user profile101. Based on such data about the user profile 101, each content sourcemay sift through available content items, select specific content items,and then rank those specific content items. Higher ranked content itemsmay be determined by the content source 120 to be of greater interest toa user associated with the user profile. Each content list may include acontent type (e.g., movie, ebook, song, etc.) of items on the contentlist, titles of the content items, identifications (e.g., standardidentification numbers) of the content items, an identifier of thecontent source, and/or other information.

For example, content source 120-A may store video content, and mayprovide a list of ranked video content items for profile 101 in contentlist 122-A to aggregator service 104. Similarly, content source 120-Bmay store audio content, and may provide a list of ranked audio itemsfor the profile 101 in content list 122-B to aggregator service 104. Insome embodiments, content lists 122 may be stacked ranked lists forprofile 101 associated with device 102-A. For example, content list122-A may be a list of video content items ranked in a stacked orderbased on preferences associated with profile 101 (e.g., if the userprefers television shows to movies, content items of television showsmay be presented higher on the list).

According to one or more embodiments, as profile 101 consumes electroniccontent on the device 102, data about interactions with the electroniccontent may be recorded. Each user device 102 may be associated with aparticular profile (e.g., profile 101). In other embodiments, each userdevice 102 may be associated with multiple user profiles. Thus, as anelectronic work is consumed on a device by a particular profile,interactions with the electronic work are associated with thatparticular profile.

In one embodiment, device 102-A may be configured to send device stateinformation in device state 106 to aggregator service 104. The devicestate information may be sent when device 102-A starts, when device102-A is idle and charging, or at any other time. Device state 106 mayinclude information describing the particular hardware characteristicsof device 102-A (e.g., memory speed, free space available on the device,etc.). Device state 106 may also include information about profile 101associated with the device (e.g., information identifying the user, theunsolicited electronic content items stored on the device for theprofile, the electronic content items specifically requested by theprofile (e.g., solicited by the profile), whether content items havebeen viewed, etc.).

The device state 106 may additionally include a current free space onone or more storage components of device 102-A. The free space mayrepresent an amount of free space on one particular storage component ofthe device 102-A. Alternatively, the free space may represent a combinedfree space across multiple storage components of the device 102-A (e.g.,across an embedded solid state drive and an inserted memory card).Additionally or alternatively, a separate free storage space may bereported for each storage component of device 102-A. The free space mayhave been determined by the unsolicited content manager on the device102-A based on an amount of storage occupied by standard content 133 anda remaining amount of storage not occupied by the standard content. Thefree storage space may also include an available free storage space. Theavailable free storage space represents an amount of free storage spacethat remains after an amount of unsolicited content in the storage isadded to the amount of standard content. Thus, the available free spacemay include an amount of storage that is available after subtracting anamount of storage occupied by the standard content 133 and an amount ofstorage occupied by unsolicited content. The unsolicited content managermay additionally determine a write speed of the storage component (e.g.,a default write speed and/or an observed write speed) and/or a deletespeed of the storage component, and may increase or reduce a value ofthe available free space based on the write speed and/or delete speed.

The device state may additionally identify previous activity associatedwith the storage component(s) of the device 102-A and/or unsolicitedcontent items. The previous activity may identify past write speeds(e.g., amount of data written in a time period such as Megabytes writtenper minute) and/or past delete speeds. The previous activity mayidentify unsolicited content items that have been accessed on the device102-A, an amount of the unsolicited content items that were presented,and/or unsolicited content items that have been deleted from the device102-A.

The device state 106 may also include a request for additionalelectronic content items (solicited or unsolicited). In someembodiments, the request for additional content can be an explicitrequest for particular content items, or a particular type of content(e.g., audio vs. video). Alternatively, the request may include theamount of free space on the device that may be occupied by electroniccontent which may be interpreted by the aggregator service 104 as arequest to provide content if there is sufficient free space toaccommodate a new unsolicited content item. Aggregator service 104 maythen create an aggregated content list 108 using items from contentlists 122-A and 122-B, and send the aggregated content list 108 todevice 102-A, which may subsequently download the content items 110 thatare included on aggregated content list 108.

In some embodiments, aggregator service 104 may determine, using theinformation received in device state 106, that at least a portion of theunsolicited electronic content stored on device 102-A has been accessedor deleted by profile 101 associated with device 102-A. Aggregatorservice 104 may then determine that a copy of the unsolicited electroniccontent is also stored on a second device 102-B associated with the sameprofile 101. Aggregator service 104 may make this determination usinginformation received in device state 106, information stored locally toaggregator service 104 (e.g., a configuration file maintaining a mappingof profiles to associated devices 102, etc.), or in any similar manner.Aggregator service 104 may then send a notification via network 112 todevice 102-B instructing the device 102-B to delete the unsolicitedelectronic content (e.g., deletion notice 180). Deletion notice 180 maybe a modified list of electronic content for the profile that hasremoved any reference to the unsolicited electronic content item that isto be deleted.

In some embodiments, different aggregated content lists are generatedfor different devices. For example, a first aggregated content list maybe generated for device 102-A and a different, second aggregated contentlist is generated for device 102-B. The different aggregated contentlists may be generated to reflect different capabilities of the devices(e.g., an ebook reader may be unable to display videos and so would notbenefit from an aggregated content list that lists videos) and/orconsumption patterns associated with the different devices. For example,device 102-A may be a television set top box and may be used exclusivelyfor watching videos (e.g., television shows and movies). Accordingly,even though device 102-A may also be capable of playing music, no musicmay be included in an aggregated content list for device 102-A since theprofile 101 has never accessed music on device 102-A.

In one embodiment, aggregator service 104 determines content preferencesfor user profile 101 based on activity included in device state 106. Forexample, a user may watch a large number of science fiction videos ondevice 102-A. Aggregator service 104 may determine an update for anaggregated content list for device 102-B based on the device state 106.For example, aggregator service 104 may increase a rank of sciencefiction titles in the aggregated content list for device 102-B. Thescience fiction titles may or may not be videos. For example, ranks ofscience fiction novels may be increased in the aggregated content listfor device 102-B based on the device state 106 of device 102-A eventhough no novels may have been consumed on device 102-A. The updatedaggregated content list may then be sent to the second device 102-B.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example network architecture 200 inwhich embodiments described herein may operate. The network architecture200 may include server system 220 and multiple devices 202, 204 capableof communicating with server systems 220 via a network 206. Network 206may include, but is not limited to, any one or more different types ofcommunications networks such as, for example, cable networks, publicnetworks (e.g., the Internet), private networks (e.g., frame-relaynetworks), wireless networks, cellular networks, telephone networks(e.g., a public switched telephone network), or any other suitableprivate or public packet-switched or circuit-switched networks. Further,the network 206 may have any suitable communication range associatedtherewith and may include, for example, public networks (e.g., theInternet), metropolitan area networks (MANs), wide area networks (WANs),local area networks (LANs), or personal area networks (PANs). Inaddition, the network 206 may include communication links and associatednetworking devices (e.g., link-layer switches, routers, etc.) fortransmitting network traffic over any suitable type of medium including,but not limited to, coaxial cable, twisted-pair wire (e.g., twisted-paircopper wire), optical fiber, a hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) medium, amicrowave medium, a radio frequency communication medium, a satellitecommunication medium, or any combination thereof.

The devices 202, 204 may include any type of mobile computing device(e.g., that has a finite power source) or traditionally non-portablecomputing device. The devices 202, 204 may be configured withfunctionality to enable consumption of one or more types of electroniccontent. The electronic content may be any type of format of electroniccontent, including, for example, electronic texts (e.g., eBooks,electronic magazines, digital newspapers, etc.), digital audio (e.g.,music, audible books, etc.), digital video (e.g., movies, television,short clips, etc.), images (e.g., art, photographs, etc.), andmulti-media content.

Devices 202, 204 and server system 220 deliver and/or receive mediaitems, applications, content requests, content lists, upgrades, devicestate information, and/or other information via the network 206. Forexample, device 204 may download or receive data from the server system220. The server system 220 also receives various requests, instructions,and other data from the device 204 via the network 206. The serversystem 220 may include one or more machines (e.g., one or more servercomputer systems, routers, gateways, etc.) that have processing andstorage capabilities to provide the above functionality.

Communication between the server system 220 and the devices 202, 204 maybe enabled via any communication infrastructure. One example of such aninfrastructure includes a combination of a wide area network (WAN) andwireless infrastructure, which allows a user to use the devices 202, 204to purchase items and consume items without being tethered to the serversystem 220 via hardwired links. The wireless infrastructure may beprovided by one or multiple wireless communications systems, such aswireless communications system 210 and wireless communication system212. One of the wireless communication systems 210, 212 may be a Wi-Fiaccess point connected with the network 206. Another of the wirelesscommunication systems 210, 212 may be a wireless carrier system that canbe implemented using various data processing equipment, communicationtowers, etc. Alternatively, or in addition, the wireless carrier systemmay rely on satellite technology to exchange information with the device204.

The devices 202, 204 may be capable of receiving and executingapplications that may perform various functions. Applications may bedeveloped by an entity affiliated with the device (e.g., a manufacturerof the devices 202, 204) and/or by third parties. For example,applications provided by social network services, game developers, newsproviders, and so forth may be installed on the device. Each of theapplications that are installed on the device may use applicationprogramming interfaces (APIs) provided by the device for waking up thedevice, communicating with remote computing devices (e.g., serversystems), and/or performing other operations.

Devices 202, 204 may include, among other physical and logical modules,unsolicited content manager 230 and device storage 232, 234. Unsolicitedcontent manager 230 can manage electronic content stored in devicestorage 232, 234 as well as optimize the functionality of devices 202,204 by dynamically managing the amount of free space within devicestorage 232, 234. Unsolicited content manager 230 may downloadunsolicited electronic content for a user profile based on preferencesassociated with the profile, device characteristics, the amount ofavailable free space in device storage 232, 234, the state of electroniccontent already stored in device storage 232, 234, or other similarinformation. An electronic content item may be downloaded based on alist from an aggregator service 240 and without receiving a downloadrequest from a user or application. Unsolicited content manager 230 maydownload unsolicited electronic content into an unsolicited contentstorage area on device storage 232, 234 so that content relevant to thepreferences of the user profile may be made available on devices 232,234 without regard to a specific user request or application request.

Unsolicited content manager 230 may send information to aggregatorservice 240 in order to obtain a list of electronic content items thatmay be relevant to the user profile associated with devices 202, 204.Unsolicited content manager 230 may then send a request to a downloadmanager 345 to download the electronic content items from the listprovided by aggregator service 240 into device storage 232, 234. In someembodiments, unsolicited content manager 230 may initiate download ofmultiple electronic content items from the list to use as much of theavailable device storage 232, 234 as possible without impacting theperformance of devices 202, 204. Unsolicited content manager 230 maymonitor the state of free space in device storage 232, 234 and compareit against a free space buffer threshold value to ensure that asufficient amount of free space (referred to as a free space buffer) ispresent on the device. The amount of free space may be a total amount ofspace available in a single storage component or across multiple storagecomponents of device storage 232, 234. In one embodiment, the amount offree space represents a total amount of storage that is unused (e.g.,not occupied by either standard content or unsolicited content).Unsolicited content manager 230 may increase or decrease the free spacebuffer threshold value based on the observed activity of devices 202,204 to maintain the appropriate level of free space in device storage232, 234.

In one embodiment, unsolicited content manager 230 may first identifyconfiguration data associated with devices 202, 204. Configuration mayinclude preloaded settings of the devices 202, 204, of operating systemof the devices, and/or of unsolicited content managers installed on thedevices 202, 204. Configuration data may include a minimum write speedassociated with devices 202, 204 (e.g., the rate at which the device maywrite data into storage based on the processor capabilities of thedevice and the type of storage available in the device), a minimum freespace buffer threshold associated with the device (e.g., a seedthreshold that can be received by the content delivery system as adefault setting), a low storage threshold of the device (e.g., a minimumamount of free space required by the operating system of the device), orother similar information. In some implementations, the low storagethreshold can indicate an amount of free storage space at which theoperating system of devices 202, 204 may prompt a user to delete contentitems from the storage component of the device (e.g., by presenting anotification to the user via a user interface). In some implementations,unsolicited content manager 230 may identify the configuration data byexecuting a data lookup instruction to access the configuration datastored in a data structure on devices 202, 204. Unsolicited contentmanager 230 may then analyze the configuration data with respect tostorage usage data collected over a previous time period of activity todetermine if the default configuration values should be modified basedon observed activity. This may include comparing a portion of theconfiguration data (e.g., a default or minimum write speed) to a portionof the storage usage data (e.g., an observed write speed). For example,unsolicited content manager 230 may monitor device storage 232, 234 overa particular period of time (e.g., every 60 seconds, every 120 seconds,every 30 seconds, and so on) to determine statistics related to writespeed, total device storage used, total free space available, etc. foruse in the comparison. The previous time period may encompass a singlemonitoring cycle (e.g., the last 60 seconds) or multiple monitoringcycles (e.g., the last 360 seconds or the last 6 monitoring cycles).

Unsolicited content manager 230 may subsequently determine the maximumamount of storage space in device storage 232, 234 that may be consumedin a future time period based on the previously observed activity. Thefuture time period may correspond to a next monitoring cycle (e.g., thenext 60 seconds). In one embodiment, unsolicited content manager 230 maydetermine an observed write speed associated with device storage 232,234 by calculating a weighted observed write speed over the previouslymeasured time period and comparing to a recent observed write speed. Theweighted observed write speed may be computed by incrementallydecreasing a previously recorded maximum write speed over successivemonitoring time periods. For example, a weight of less than 1 (e.g.,0.9) may be applied to the previous maximum observed write speed. Ateach monitoring cycle, unsolicited content manager 230 may determine arecent observed write speed, and additionally compare the recentobserved write speed to a weighted previous maximum write speed. Theweight that is applied to the previous maximum write speed may bedecreased over time based on how long it has been since the previousmaximum write speed was recorded. The new observed write speed may bethe larger of the recent observed write speed and the weighted previousmaximum write speed. Thus, an observed write speed that is calculatedduring a monitoring period where a greater amount of data has beenwritten to storage will not cause the determined buffer threshold toremain inappropriately large for successive monitoring periods where theactual storage space usage decreases. Unsolicited content manager 230may then compare the observed write speed (e.g., the new observed writespeed) to the minimum write speed to determine a maximum expected writespeed for a time period in the future (e.g., a write speed expected overthe next 60 seconds).

In an illustrative example, an initial write speed may be set to 4 MBper minute (e.g., given that observed write speeds are measured over a60 second monitoring frequency cycle). The write speed may be set usingMB (megabytes), GB (gigabytes) or in any other storage size value. Thewrite speed rate may be measured using the period of time for a selectedmonitoring frequency cycled (e.g., per minute given a 60 secondmonitoring frequency). During a first monitoring period, unsolicitedcontent manager 230 may determine that the observed write speedincreased to 8 MB per minute due to an application writing to devicestorage. During a second monitoring period, unsolicited content manager230 may determine that the observed write speed had decreased to 6 MBper minute due to a decrease in application activity. Unsolicitedcontent manager 230 may calculate the weighted observed write speed forthe second monitoring period by decreasing the previously determinedmaximum (8 MB per minute) by a decay factor (e.g., decreasing by 10percent). The resulting weighted observed write speed (e.g., 7.2 MB perminute) may then be compared to the observed write speed for the secondmonitoring period (6 MB per minute) to determine the new maximumexpected write speed (e.g., since 7.2 MB per minute is the larger value,7.2 MB per minute will be selected as the new maximum expected writespeed.

If, during subsequent monitoring periods, the observed write speedcontinues to remain below the previously calculated maximum, unsolicitedcontent manager 230 can continue to reduce the weighted observed writespeed until it reaches the initial write speed of 4 MB per minute. Insome implementations, unsolicited content manager 230 may calculate theweighted observed write speed by decreasing the previous maximum byincrementally larger amounts. For example, the 8 MB per minute maximumcan be decreased by 10 percent during the first subsequent monitoringperiod, by 20 percent during the second subsequent period, and so on.Alternatively, unsolicited content manager 230 may calculate theweighted observed write speed by decreasing the previously determinedweighted observed write speed by the same amount. For example, the 8 MBper minute maximum can be decreased by 10 percent during the firstsubsequent monitoring period, resulting in a new maximum of 7.2 MB perminute. During a second subsequent monitoring period, the new maximum of7.2 MB per minute can be decremented again by 10 percent to yield a newvalue of 6.48 MB per minute, and so on.

Unsolicited content manager 230 may then determine a time interval atwhich the total amount of free storage space and/or available amount offree storage space may be checked (e.g., the 60 second interval) andmultiply the maximum write speed by the time interval to determine themaximum amount of storage that is predicted to be written to over thefuture time period. Unsolicited content manager 230 may then set thefree space buffer threshold for the free space buffer in device storage232, 234 to be greater than the maximum amount of storage space that ispredicted to be consumed in the future time period.

Unsolicited content manager 230 may then determine the total amount offree storage space in device storage 232, 234 and set a size for anunsolicited content storage area of a storage component on device 202,204 to be at least the total amount of free storage space minus the freespace buffer threshold. Total free space represents the total size of astorage component (or group of storage components) minus an amount ofspace occupied by standard content). The unsolicited content storagearea of device 202, 204 may be the total amount of storage that may bededicated to loading electronic content for the user profile associatedwith device 202, 204.

Unsolicited content manager 230 may monitor the storage space usage ofdevice storage 232, 234 at periodic intervals (e.g., every 60 seconds).Monitoring the storage space usage may include determining a total freestorage space for a storage component (space that remains aftersubtracting size of standard content from size of storage component) aswell as determining an available free storage space for the storagecomponent (space that remains after subtracting size of the unsolicitedcontent storage area from the total free space). A size of theunsolicited content storage area may be dynamic. As additional standardcontent is added to the storage component the total free storage spacewill shrink and the size of the unsolicited content storage area will bereduced accordingly. As standard content is deleted from the storagecomponent, the total free storage space will grow, and the size of theunsolicited content storage area will be increased accordingly.

If unsolicited content manager 230 determines that the storage spaceusage of device storage 232, 234 causes the amount of available freespace to fall below the free space buffer threshold, unsolicited contentmanager 230 may increase the free space buffer threshold by apredetermined incremental amount of space. This may cause a size of theunsolicited content storage area to be reduced. If unsolicited contentmanager 230 determines that the storage space usage of device storage232, 234 causes the amount of free space available to exceed the freespace buffer threshold, unsolicited content manager 230 may decrease thefree space buffer threshold by a predetermined incremental amount ofspace. This may cause a size of the unsolicited content storage area tobe increased. In some embodiments, unsolicited content manager 230 mayuse a larger amount of space to increase the threshold than to decreasethe threshold. Alternatively, the increase and decrease amounts may bethe same.

In some embodiments, unsolicited content manager 230 may also considerwhether data can be deleted faster than the free space buffer can befilled when determining the threshold size. For example, unsolicitedcontent manager 230 may compare the observed write speed over a periodof time to the delete speed associated with device storage 232, 234. Ifthe observed write speed is faster than the delete speed of devicestorage 232, 234, it may indicate that the free space buffer can befilled faster than data may be deleted, and thereby requiring anincrease of the free space buffer threshold.

Similarly, unsolicited content manager 230 may consider upload anddownload speeds associated with the network connections of devices 202,204 (e.g., wireless communication systems 210, 212). If unsolicitedcontent manager 230 determines that the delete speed associated withdevice storage 232, 234 is faster than the download speed associatedwith the network connection of devices 202, 204, this can indicate thatelectronic content may be deleted from the device faster than it can beadded. In this instance, unsolicited content manager 230 may confirm thesize of the free space buffer threshold and leave it unchanged.Conversely, if devices 202, 204 are connected to a high speed networkconnection (e.g., via USB cable, or high speed internet), the downloadspeed could be faster than the delete speed associated with devicestorage 232, 234, which can indicate that electronic content may bedownloaded faster than it may be deleted. In this instance, unsolicitedcontent manager 230 may increase the size of the free space bufferthreshold.

In some embodiments, a size of the available free space is used todetermine when to download new unsolicited content items. Theunsolicited content manager 230 may subtract the size of the free spacebuffer threshold from the available free storage space. If a remainderis larger than a threshold amount and/or larger than a size of an itemon an aggregated list of unsolicited content items, then the unsolicitedcontent manager 230 may request that a download manager download theitem on the aggregated list. The threshold amount may be 1 MB, 10 MB, 1GB, or some other threshold value. The threshold amount may depend ontypes of content that may be consumed on the device. For example, if thedevice only consumes videos, than the threshold amount may be largerthan if the device consumes ebooks.

Server system 220 may include an aggregator service 240 which canreceive information from devices 202, 204, and provide lists ofelectronic content items to be downloaded by devices 202, 204. Serversystem 220 may provide aggregator service 240 with access to one or morecontent sources 250-A, 250-B that may correspond to any source ofelectronic content (e.g., video, audio, e-books, periodicals, etc.). Inone embodiment, aggregator service 240 may obtain ranked lists ofcontent for a user profile based on the type of content stored incontent source 250-A, 250-B. Aggregator service 240 may then compile anaggregated list of content items using the lists from content sources250-A, 250-B to send to the requesting device 202, 204. The aggregatedlist may be constructed using known preferences associated with the userprofile, based on available free space on the requesting device, basedon sizes of electronic content items, or any similar selection criteria.Additionally, aggregator service 240 may manage the electronic contentfor a single profile associated with multiple devices, multiple profilesassociated with a single device, and/or multiple profiles associatedwith multiple devices.

In one embodiment, aggregator service 240 may determine that a userprofile is associated with both device 202 and device 204 (e.g., asingle user profile maintains electronic content on a mobile phone and atablet computer). Aggregator service 240 may cause unsolicitedelectronic content items to be stored in device storage 232 of device202, and/or device storage 234 of device 204. Aggregator service 240 maysubsequently determine, based on information received from device 202,that unsolicited electronic content may be deleted from device 204. Forexample, aggregator service 240 may receive information describing thestate of electronic content associated with a user profile that isstored in device storage 232 of device 202. The state of the electroniccontent may include information identifying the unsolicited electroniccontent items downloaded into device storage 232, the size of eachunsolicited electronic content item, whether the unsolicited electroniccontent items have been accessed or deleted by the user, the amount oftotal free space and/or available free space remaining on a storagecomponent of the device, etc.

Aggregator service 240 may determine, using information stored byaggregator service 240, that the user profile is also associated withcontent stored in device storage 234 of device 204. Aggregator service240 may then determine the state of unsolicited electronic contentstored for the profile in device storage 234 of device 204. Aggregatorservice 240 may then determine a combined state of the electroniccontent for the user profile using the state of device storage 232 andthe state of device storage 234. For example, aggregator service 240 maydetermine that the same unsolicited movie has been downloaded on bothdevices. If the aggregator service 240 determines that the combinedstate of the electronic content associated with a profile across bothdevice 202 and 204 satisfies an electronic content deletion rule,aggregator service 240 may send a notification to one or both of thedevices 202, 204 to delete an unsolicited electronic content item storedin device storage 232, 234 (e.g., one of the electronic content items indevice storage that was downloaded by the unsolicited content manager230 of the device without first receiving a download request from a userassociated with the profile).

For example, aggregator service 240 may determine, using informationdescribing the state of device storage 232, that an unsolicitedelectronic content item stored on device 202 has been accessed (e.g.,the user has viewed a video on the device) or deleted by the userprofile on device 202. Aggregator service 240 may then determine, usingthe information describing the state of device storage 234, that thesame unsolicited electronic content item is also stored on device 204.Aggregator service 240 may subsequently send a notification to device204 to delete the unsolicited electronic content item from devicestorage 234.

In an alternative embodiment, aggregator service 240 may determine, fromthe combined state of the electronic content, that a total number ofelectronic content items having a particular property are distributedacross both devices 202 and 204 associated with the user profile (e.g.,the user profile has 20 videos downloaded across both devices).Aggregator service 240 may then determine that the total number ofelectronic content items with the particular property that aredistributed across the two devices 202 and 204 exceeds a predeterminedelectronic content threshold (e.g., the number of videos downloadedexceeds a threshold of 10). Upon determining that the threshold numberhas been exceeded, aggregator service 240 may send a notification todevice 204 to delete an unsolicited electronic content item from devicestorage 234. In some embodiments, aggregator service 240 mayadditionally send a notification to device 202 to delete an unsolicitedelectronic content item from device storage 232.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a logical view of a device 300, inaccordance with one embodiment. The device 300 is logically divided intoa kernel layer (not shown), a framework layer 310, and an applicationlayer 302. The kernel layer is reserved for privileged processes, andprovides access to operations that are not available at the frameworklayer 310 or application layer 302. The kernel layer also acts as anabstraction layer between hardware and the higher layers (e.g., theframework layer 310 and application layer 302). The framework layer 310provides higher-level services to applications. The framework layer 310may include an unsolicited content manager 320 that manages the contentand free space of device storage 330, and a device storage monitor thatmonitors the activity of device storage 330.

Applications 304, 306 that run at the application layer 302 may includestandard applications that are automatically included in the device andadditional applications, which may be third party applications and/orother applications that are not pre-installed on the device 300.Examples of applications (or apps) 304, 306 may include a social networkapplication (e.g., a Goodreads® app, a Facebook® app, a Google-F® app, aLinkedIn® app, etc.), an electronic mail (email) application (e.g., aFireOS® mail app, a Yahoo® Mail! app, a Gmail® app, an OS X® mail app,etc.), a calendar application, games, a newsreader application, a videoviewing application, or any similar type of application to permit userto access downloaded electronic content. Applications 304, 306 mayinclude user interfaces 305, 307. The user interfaces 305, 307 may begraphical user interfaces (GUIs) or command line user interfaces. Userinterfaces 305, 307 may enable a user to easily access or deletedownloaded electronic content. For example, application 304 may be avideo viewing application with a user interface 305 that may list thevideos available in the device storage 330 of device 300.

The device 300 may include an unsolicited content manager 320, devicestorage 330, device storage monitor 340, and download manager 345 inframework layer 310. Unsolicited content manager 320 may be responsiblefor managing a free space buffer 332 as well as unsolicited electroniccontent items 336 that are downloaded into unsolicited content storagearea 334 of device storage 330. Unsolicited content manager 320 mayinclude configuration information stored locally on the device such asprofile data 321, content list 322, and threshold data 323 to assistwith device management activities.

Profile data 321 may include information to identify one or more userprofiles associated with the device. Profile data 321 may include useridentification information (e.g., name, address, billing information,email address) as well as information to connect the user profile to acontent delivery service or online marketplace. Content list 322 may bea list of content items 336 that are stored in unsolicited contentstorage area 334 under the management of unsolicited content manager320. Content list 322 may be indexed by profile so that unsolicitedcontent manger 320 may determine which content items have beendownloaded by a particular profile. Content list 322 may additionallymaintain the state of any content item 336 in unsolicited contentstorage area 334. For example, whether a content item has been accessed,and if so, how much of the content item has been consumed by the user(e.g., for a video, content list 322 may retain the timestamp of wherethe user left off during the last viewing).

Threshold data 323 may include threshold settings calculated byunsolicited content manager 320 during its management of unsolicitedcontent storage area 334 and free space buffer 332. For example,threshold data 323 may store a free space buffer threshold that may beused to determine whether the size of free space buffer 332 should beincreased or decreased based on usage of device storage 330.Additionally, threshold data 323 may include a size setting forunsolicited content storage area 334 that may be calculated byunsolicited content manager 320. Threshold data 323 may also be used tostore various default settings based the capabilities of device 300. Forexample, threshold data 323 may store a minimum write speed associatedwith device storage 330, a minimum free space buffer threshold of theoperating system, or a low storage threshold of the operating system.The low storage threshold may represent a threshold amount of total freestorage that, when met, causes the operating system to generate anotification or prompt that data should be deleted from the device tofree up storage space. For example, if the amount of total free storagedrops below 10% of a size of a storage component in an embodiment, thenthe low storage threshold may be reached and the operating system maygenerate a low storage notification.

Unsolicited content manager 320 may also include device state monitor324, policy enforcement module 325, buffer size calculator module 326,and server interaction module 327. Device state monitor 324 can updateprofile data 321 when new user profiles are added to the device, andsimilarly, removed from the device. Device state monitor 324 mayadditionally update the content list 322 while managing the contentitems 336 that are downloaded into unsolicited content storage area 334,determine the capabilities of device 300 to store default settings inthreshold data 323, and determine whether data is being added to freespace buffer 332 faster than it can be deleted from unsolicited contentstorage area 334. Device state monitor 324 may continuously tune thesize of the unsolicited content storage area 334 and free space bufferthreshold based on observed device activity as monitored by devicestorage monitor 340.

Policy enforcement module 325 may be responsible for completing one ormore actions upon determining that a threshold has been reached. Forexample, device storage monitor 340 may determine that the free spacebuffer 332 has fallen below the free space buffer threshold stored inthreshold data 323. Device storage monitor 340 may then alert policyenforcement module 325 to take a predefined action (e.g., increasing thesize of the free space buffer threshold, deleting one or more contentitems 336 from unsolicited content storage area 334, or other similaraction). Policy enforcement module 325 may then either complete theaction or invoke another component of unsolicited content manager 320 tocomplete the action. For example, policy enforcement module 325 mayinvoke buffer size calculator module 326 to recalculate the size of thefree space buffer threshold to maintain a larger free space buffer 332.Policy enforcement module 325 may then invoke device state monitor 324to generate an instruction for the storage component to delete one ormore content items 336 from unsolicited content storage area 334 to addfree space to free space buffer 332. Similarly, upon receiving anotification from device storage monitor 340 that the amount of freespace in free space buffer 332 has exceeded the free space bufferthreshold, policy enforcement module 325 may invoke server interactionmodule 327 to request additional electronic content from a contentdelivery service (e.g., aggregator service 240 of server system 220 inFIG. 2).

As noted above, buffer size calculator module 326 may use informationcollected by other components of device 300 to recalculate the freespace buffer threshold size to adjust the size of unsolicited contentstorage area 334 as well as the size of the free space buffer 332.Buffer size calculator module 326 may complete the recalculation eitherupon a breach of the free space buffer threshold (e.g., as indicated bypolicy enforcement module 325) or continuously based on observedactivity (e.g., as indicated by device state monitor 324). Buffer sizecalculator module 326 may utilize device default characteristics as wellas observed processing characteristics to adjust the free space buffersize.

Server interaction module 327 may conduct all communication activitybetween device 300 and an electronic content delivery service. Upondetermining that the free space buffer 332 has exceeded the free spacebuffer threshold, device storage monitor 340 may invoke policyenforcement module 325 to take some action. Policy enforcement module325 may determine that additional content items 336 should be downloadedto unsolicited content storage area 334 and invoke server interactionmodule 327 to retrieve content items 336 that are relevant to the activeuser profile. Server interaction module 327 may send content request 350to the content delivery service (e.g., aggregator service 240 of serversystem 220 in FIG. 2), receive aggregated list 352 from the contentdelivery service containing a list of content items for the profile, andsubsequently invoke download manager 345 to download unsolicited content354 into unsolicited content storage area 334.

Aggregated list 352 may be or include an aggregated list of contentitems for the active user profile from an aggregator service. Aggregatedlist 352 may also include content items for other user profilesassociated with device 300. In some embodiments, aggregated list 352 mayinclude content items from a single content source, or from multiplecontent sources, based on content preferences associated with the userprofiles (e.g., whether the user prefers videos over electronic books,etc.) as well as attributes of device 300 (e.g., available free storage,ability of the device to display specific types of content, etc.).Aggregated list 352 may be received by device 300 as a file thatincludes the electronic content itself. Alternatively, aggregated list352 may be received as a data structure with information describing eachitem on the list, which may enable the device 300 to download each item.For example, aggregated list 352 may be a list of video content items,electronic publication content items, music albums, etc. ranked in astacked order based on preferences associated with the user profile(e.g., if the user prefers television shows to movies, and books toeither television shows or movies, content items of electronic books maybe presented highest on the list, followed by television shows andmovies).

Aggregated list 352 may additionally include other information toidentify electronic content items for the user profile. In someimplementations, the content list may include a unique identifier foreach electronic content item that identifies a specific electroniccontent item provided by an associated content delivery service (e.g., atitle of the content item, a serial number such as an InternationalStandard Book Number (ISBN) or Amazon Standard Identification Number(ASIN), an inventory number, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for thelocation of the content item, etc.). Aggregated list 352 may alsoinclude information describing the content such as content type (e.g.,audio, video, electronic book, etc.), content genre (e.g., thriller,mystery, action, etc.), whether the content is intended for adults only,or any similar information. Aggregated list 352 may also include profileinformation such as a unique identifier associated with the userprofile, as well as ranking information for each content item based onhow the content item aligns with the preferences associated with theuser profile (e.g., if the user prefers movies to electronic books, anyitems in the list that are movies can have a higher rank on the listthan electronic books).

As noted above, server interaction module 327 may receive aggregatedlist 352 and subsequently invoke download manager 345 to download one ormore of the electronic content items from aggregated list 352 intounsolicited content storage area 334. In some implementations,aggregated list 352 may be used by aggregator service to sendinstructions to device 300 to delete content from unsolicited contentstorage area 334. For example, upon receipt of aggregated list 352,server interaction module 357 may compare the content items inaggregated list 352 to the content items 336 that are already inunsolicited content storage area 334. If there are content items 336already in unsolicited content storage area 334 that are not present inaggregated list 352, server interaction module may interpret this as aninstruction to remove the applicable content items 336 from unsolicitedcontent storage area 334. Server interaction module 327 may then issuean instruction to notify the operating system of device 330 to deletethe applicable content items 336 from unsolicited content storage area334. Server interaction module 327 may additionally determine that thereis space in the unsolicited content storage area 334 for additionalunsolicited content after deleting the content items that are no longerin the aggregated list 352. Accordingly, server interactions module 327may send instructions to download manager 345 to download one or moretop ranked unsolicited content items in aggregated list 352 until theunsolicited content storage area is filled.

In some embodiments, aggregated list 352 may contain instructions foreach electronic content item in the list to direct device 330 to eitherdownload the item or delete the item from unsolicited content storagearea 334. Server interaction module 327 may then invoke download managerto initiate download of the items on the list to download, and issue aninstruction to notify the operating system to delete the applicablecontent items 336 from unsolicited content storage area 334 whereapplicable.

In some embodiments aggregated list 352 may include content licensing orauthorization information associated with the user profile that canindicate whether the user profile no longer has authorization to accessparticular electronic content items (e.g., if content item is protectedwith digital rights management (DRM) to which the user profile does nothave access, if the content delivery service has revoked the license ofthe user profile to access the content item, if the user profile nolonger subscribes to the content delivery service, if the contentdelivery service no longer provides the content item, etc.). Forexample, device state monitor 324 may periodically invoke serverinteraction module 327 to synch with the content delivery service tocheck the authority of the user profile to continue to access contentitems 336 currently stored in unsolicited content storage area 334. Ifaggregated list 352 indicates that the user profile no longer hasauthority to access a content item on the list, server interactionmodule 327 may interpret this as an instruction to delete the contentitem 336 from unsolicited content storage area 334 and issue aninstruction to notify the operating system to delete the applicablecontent item 336 from unsolicited content storage area 334.

In some embodiments, aggregated list 352 may be used to maintain theinventory of content items 336 on device 300. Server interaction module327 may update content list 322 with content items from aggregated list352 that may be later used to present to a user in one of applications304, 306 via user interfaces 305, 307. Applications 304, 306 may renderand present user interfaces 305, 307 to indicate that content items 336have been downloaded on the device 300 when a user is browsing throughavailable content to consume, both cloud-based content and content thatwas stored as unsolicited content items 336.

Device storage 330 may represent the one or more storage component ondevice 300. Device storage 330 may include one or more of an embeddedstorage component (e.g., Embedded Multi Media Card (EMMC) storage),removable storage (e.g., secure digital (SD) card storage), flashmemory, disk storage, or any similar storage method. Device storage 330may be managed by device 300 as a single storage space across multiplestorage components, or separately by individual storage component.Device storage 330 may include free space buffer 332 that represents anamount of free space in device storage 330 that unsolicited contentmanager 320 has determined to be an optimal level of free space toensure that device 300 will operate efficiently. Unsolicited contentstorage area 334 represents the portion of device storage 330 to be usedfor unsolicited electronic content items 336 that are downloaded for theuser profile (e.g., unsolicited electronic content for the user profilefrom the content delivery service and downloaded).

In some implementations, device storage 330 may include additionalunsolicited content storage areas 334 for additional profiles associatedwith the device. Each unsolicited content storage area 334 may bemanaged separately by unsolicited content manager 320 according to theassociated profile. Unsolicited content manager 320 may primarily managethe unsolicited content storage area 334 associated with the activeprofile (e.g., the user profile that is actively being used on thedevice 300), modifying unsolicited content storage area 334 for otherprofiles only when appropriate due to storage constraints. Standardcontent 333 represents all consumed storage other than the unsolicitedcontent storage area, which may include content items 338, operatingsystem files, used generated content, and so on. Content items 338represent electronic content items that may be downloaded without theinvolvement of unsolicited content manager 320 (e.g., if one ofapplications 306 requests a download of content).

As noted above, device storage monitor 340 may represent a componentthat periodically monitors the activity of device storage 330. Devicestorage monitor 340 may be a component of the device 300 operatingsystem or may be a component that is separate from the operating system.Device storage monitor 340 can collect statistical information atperiodic intervals (e.g., a 60 second monitoring frequency), save thestatistics, pass the statistics to device state monitor 324 for furtherprocessing, or use the statistics to determine if any set thresholdshave been breached and subsequently invoke policy enforcement module 325to implement a preset policy.

As noted above, download manager 345 may represent a component of device300 that manages downloading electronic content into device storage 330.Download manager 345 may be invoked by a sub component of unsolicitedcontent manager 320 (e.g., server interaction module 327) to downloadcontent items 336 into unsolicited content storage area 334.Alternatively, download manager 345 may be invoked by applications 304,306 to download content items 338 into standard content 333. In someembodiments, download manager 345 may communicate with unsolicitedcontent manager 320 to initiate cache cleanup operations on unsolicitedcontent storage area 334 in order to provide additional storage spacefor standard content 333. For example, application 304 may invokedownload manager 345 to download a content item 338 to store in standardcontent 333. Upon determining that there is not enough free storagespace to complete the download, download manager 345 may send anotification to unsolicited content manager 320 to remove one or morecontent items 336 from unsolicited content storage area 334 in order toprovide additional storage space in standard content 333 for therequested download.

In an illustrative example, device state monitor 324 may identify devicedata that can include a minimum write speed associated with device 300(e.g., the rate at which device 300 may write data to device storage330), a minimum free space buffer threshold associated with device 300(e.g., a seed threshold that can be received by the content deliverysystem as a default setting), and a low storage threshold of device 300(e.g., the minimum amount of free space for the operating system tofunction). Device state monitor 324 may then determine a write speedassociated with device storage 330 by comparing the minimum write speedto an observed write speed observed over a period of time (e.g.,calculated from information received from device storage monitor 340based on observed storage write operations to device storage 330). Asnoted above, the observed write speed may be computed by incrementallydecreasing a previously recorded maximum write speed over successivemonitoring time periods. At each monitoring cycle, device state monitor324 may determine a new observed write speed, and additionally comparethe new observed write speed to a weighted previous maximum write speed.The weight that is applied to the previous maximum write speed may bedecreased over time based on how long it has been since the previousmaximum write speed was recorded. The weighted observed write speed maybe the larger of the new observed write speed and the weighted previousmaximum write speed. Thus, an observed write speed that is calculatedduring a monitoring period where a greater amount of data has beenwritten to storage will not cause the determined buffer threshold toremain inappropriately large for successive monitoring periods where theactual storage space usage decreases. The larger of the minimum writespeed and the weighted observed write speed may be selected as the writespeed. Device state monitor 324 can then determine a monitoringfrequency at which device storage monitor 340 may be initiated (e.g.,every 60 seconds) to check the total amount of free storage spaceavailable in device storage 330.

Device state monitor 324 may then invoke buffer size calculator 326 tocalculate the free space buffer threshold. Buffer size calculator 326may first multiply the write speed by a time interval associated withthe monitoring frequency to determine a predicted storage space usage ofdevice storage 330 for a future time period (e.g., for a future instanceof the time interval). The resulting value can approximate the maximumpredicted amount of data that can be written to device storage 330during the time interval during which the device storage monitor remainsidle before making the next status check of the state of device storage330. If the predicted storage space usage is greater than the minimumfree space buffer threshold determined by the device state monitor 324,this can indicate that the default buffer size threshold may not belarge enough to accommodate the expected write activity to the storagespace. Buffer size calculator 326 may then adjust the buffer sizethreshold to the larger value to account for the expected activity.Additionally, to account for operating system requirements, buffer sizecalculator may add the low storage threshold value to the larger of theminimum free space buffer threshold and the predicted storage spaceusage to determine the updated free space buffer threshold. Buffer sizecalculator may then set the size of unsolicited content storage area 334to be equal to the total amount of free storage space available indevice storage 330 minus the free space buffer threshold.

In some embodiments, device storage monitor 340 may continue to monitordevice storage 330 and notify policy enforcement module 325 if theamount of free space in free space buffer 332 meet, exceed, or fallbelow the free space buffer threshold in effect. If the free space infree space buffer 332 falls below the free space buffer threshold (e.g.,current measured device activity indicates that storage is being filledat a higher rate), policy enforcement module 325 may be invoked toincrease the size of the free space buffer threshold. Conversely, if thefree space in free space buffer 332 exceeds the free space bufferthreshold (e.g., indicating that more free space is available on thedevice that may be used for unsolicited electronic content), policyenforcement module 325 may be invoked to decrease the size of the freespace buffer threshold.

In some embodiments, device state monitor 324 may make adjustments tothe free space buffer threshold using download speeds associated with anetwork connection of the device. If content may be downloaded fasterthan it can be deleted from storage component 330, device state monitormay invoke buffer size calculator module to increase the size of thefree space buffer threshold. Conversely, if the delete speed is fasterthan the download speed, device state monitor 324 may confirm the freespace buffer threshold. Delete speed represents a rate at which theunsolicited content can be deleted from the unsolicited content storagearea. Delete speed may be based on a setting of the device thatrepresents an amount of data that is deleted per delete request from theunsolicited content manager. In one embodiment, only a single deleterequest is issued per instance of the time interval. Alternatively,delete speed may be based on an amount of time that it takes to performa deletion. Delete speed may be based on a storage type of the storagecomponent. Device state monitor 324 may determine download speed bycollecting statistical information when electronic content is downloadedto the device 300 and maintaining an average download speed in a localstorage space (e.g., threshold data 323). Alternatively, processinglogic may determine the download speed dynamically by sending andreceiving packets to a network location periodically while the device isactive.

In some embodiments, device state monitor 324 may make adjustments tothe free space buffer threshold if the free space buffer 332 is filledfaster than data can be deleted from unsolicited content storage area334. Device state monitor 324 may determine an observed write speedassociated with device storage 330 that is the larger of the minimumwrite speed and the weighted observed write speed over a previouslymonitored time period. If the delete speed is faster than the observedwrite speed, this may indicate that data can be deleted from theunsolicited content storage area 334 faster than the free space buffer332 may be filled, thus requiring no modification to the free spacebuffer threshold. Conversely, if the free space buffer was filled fasterthan it could be deleted from the cache, prompting a notification fromdevice storage monitor 340, the free space buffer threshold may beincreased.

In some embodiments, after an additional time period, device storagemonitor 340 may determine a new observed write speed associated withdevice storage 330. The new observed write speed may be the weightedobserved write speed measured by device state monitor 324 over theadditional time period. Buffer size calculator may then multiply the newobserved write speed by the time interval to determine a new predictedstorage space usage for device storage 330, and subsequently calculate anew free space buffer threshold using the updated predicted storagespace size.

In some embodiments, device state monitor 324 may also account foractivity of applications 306 that cause storage components to manipulatedevice storage 330 to add or remove content items 338. For example,device state monitor 324 may first identify application 306 that isrunning on device 300. Device state monitor 324 may then determinehistorical storage space utilization associated with application 306 andadjust the free space buffer threshold in accordance with the historicalusage of application 306. For example, if application 306 is a cameraapplication that can capture and store bursts of high resolution photos,device state monitor 324 may determine that historical usage ofapplication 306 indicates that when running application 306 can use upstorage quickly. Device state monitor may then invoke buffer sizecalculator module 326 to adjust the free space buffer size in accordancewith this utilization.

In some embodiments, device state monitor 324 may also account forapplications installed but not active on device 300. Device statemonitor 324 may identify an application 306 installed on device 300, andreceive space utilization information for application 306 from a serverthat has been collected from other devices using the same application306. Device state monitor 324 may then determine a space utilizationassociated with application 306 based on the received storageutilization of the application on other devices and adjust the freespace buffer size accordingly.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a logical view of an aggregator service400, in accordance with one embodiment. Aggregator service 400 maycorrespond to the aggregator service 104 of FIG. 1 or aggregator service240 of FIG. 2. In some embodiments, aggregator service 400 may includerequest processor 405, candidate source generator 410, list builder 415,response generator 420, device synch module 425, trigger event processor430, profile manager 435, and configuration data 440.

Request processor 405 can receive a content request 480 from one or moredevices (e.g., device 102 of FIG. 1, devices 202/204 of FIG. 2, and/ordevice 300 of FIG. 3) to provide content for a particular user profileassociated with the device. Request processor 405 may parse the contentsof content request 480, determine the user profile associated with therequest, access configuration data 440 to identify data associated withthe requesting user profile, and subsequently determine if theunsolicited content storage area on the requesting device is due for arefresh. Request processor 405 may additionally store informationreceived in the content request 480 into configuration data 440. Forexample, the current state of storage on the device may be stored indevice characteristics 442.

Once content request 480 has been parsed and request processor 405determines that the unsolicited content storage area of the requestingdevice is ready to be updated, aggregator service 400 may invokecandidate source generator 410 to determine the appropriate electroniccontent sources to query for electronic content. Candidate sourcegenerator may access profile data 441 to identify user preferencesassociated with the profile (e.g., whether the user prefers audiocontent or video content, whether the user prefers television shows ormovies, etc.). Candidate source generator 410 may then identifyparticular content source repositories from which to retrieve lists ofcontent. For example, if the user prefers videos, candidate sourcegenerator may identify a video content source available to aggregatorservice 400.

List builder 415 may then send requests to the identified data sourcesto retrieve lists of content from the individual sources. List builder415 may receive content lists 470 and 471 from different data sourcesand create an aggregated list of content based on information stored inconfiguration data 440. For example, list builder 415 may useinformation in device characteristics 442 to determine how much freespace is available on the device in order to select from content lists470 and 471. Available free space can represent the amount of storagespace on the device that is available for unsolicited digital contentplus the amount of storage space that is to be reserved in the freespace buffer. In some implementations, list builder 415 can determinethe amount of available free space by first sending a request to thedevice for a report on the amount of available free space. List builder415 may then receive a response from the device that identifies theamount of available free space. Alternatively, list builder 415 maydetermine the amount of available free space on a device using otherinformation received from the device. For example, list builder 415 mayreceive data identifying a total amount of free space on a device thatincludes the size of a storage component (e.g., device storage 330 ofFIG. 3) minus an amount of content other than unsolicited content storedon the storage component. List builder 415 may additionally receive dataidentifying a free space buffer threshold for a free space buffer on thestorage component. List builder 415 may additionally receive dataidentifying an amount of space on the storage component occupied byunsolicited content (e.g., the amount of space occupied by unsolicitedcontent storage area 334 of FIG. 3). List builder 415 may receive thedevice related information during device synchronization requestreceived by device synch module 425, during a request for content byrequest processor 405, or in any similar manner. The List builder 415may compute the available free space by subtracting the value of thefree space buffer threshold and the amount of storage space occupied bythe unsolicited content from the total amount of free space on thedevice.

Additionally, or alternatively, list builder 415 may use information inprofile data 441 to identify user preference information to selectelectronic content items from any of the lists. List builder 415 mayadditionally receive content map 490 that can include a list of contentcurrently associated with particular profiles and downloaded toparticular devices. Content map 490 can be received from the individualsources along with lists 470, 471, from an ownership authority service,or another component of the aggregator service. List builder 415 maydetermine an aggregated list 482 of unsolicited electronic content forthe requesting profile that meets any device or preference constraintsdetected. The aggregated list 482 may then be formatted and sent to therequesting device by response generator 420.

In an illustrative example, list builder 415 can create aggregated list482 by selecting at least one electronic content item from lists 470 or471 according to the content preference for the profile stored inprofile data 441 and storage size and/or capabilities of the electroniccontent items on each list. Each electronic content item from lists 470and 471 may be given a score and weighted based on user preferences,size of the individual items, device capabilities, or other similarcriteria. Electronic content items with the highest weighted score maybe selected for aggregated list 482. For example, if a user prefersvideos to electronic books, video content may be given a higher weightedscore over electronic books. Thus, video content may be selected foraggregated list 482 over audio content. Additionally, list builder 415may skip items from any of the lists based on the size of the individualcontent items depending on the amount of free space available on thedevice. For example, even though a user may prefer videos, processinglogic may select a series of electronic books if the amount of freespace is not sufficient to store a video file. Conversely, if eventhough a user may prefer electronic books, if there is a large amount offree space available on the device, processing logic may select videosalong with electronic books for the modified list.

Aggregator service 400 may generate a separate aggregated content list482 for each device associated with a user profile and/or user account.Different aggregated content lists may have overlapping content as wellas differing content. Different lists may be created for differentdevices to account for the different capabilities of those devicesand/or different content consumption patterns of a user profileassociated with those different devices.

In some embodiments, aggregator service 400 may determine that there aremultiple profiles associated with the requesting device. Requestprocessor 405 may parse the request from the device for the activeprofile (e.g., the profile that was most recently used on the device),and may then invoke profile manager 435 to determine whether a secondprofile is associated with the device. If a second profile isidentified, candidate source generator 410 and list builder 415 may thenbe invoked to obtain a list of content for the second profile and selectat least one unsolicited electronic content item for the second profile.List builder 415 may then add this unsolicited content item toaggregated list 482 to create a modified list to be sent to the device.In one embodiment, a weight is applied to the top item from the list ofcontent for the second profile. The weight may be a weight of less than1 (e.g., 0.5). The weight may cause the content item for the secondprofile to be inserted into the aggregated content list for the firstprofile.

Device synch module 425 can perform synchronization operations apartfrom specific requests for content received from a device. For example,a device may periodically connect to aggregator service 400 to reportthe current state of free space available on the device, report thestatus of electronic content already downloaded (e.g., both solicitedand unsolicited electronic content) to the device (e.g., whether thecontent has been accessed or deleted), profile information updated bythe device, or the like. Responsive to receiving device stateinformation from a device, device synch module 425 may determine whetherunsolicited electronic content should be deleted from that device, orother devices associated with the same user profile. For example, devicesynch module 425 may determine, based on device state information, thatunsolicited electronic content has been accessed or deleted on a deviceassociated with a particular user profile, and may determine that theunsolicited electronic content should be deleted from any other devicesassociated with the same profile. Similarly, device synch module 425 mayidentify all devices associated with a user profile, determine acombined device state for all of the associated devices, andsubsequently determine if any unsolicited electronic content itemsshould be deleted from any of the devices. For example, if the userprofile associated with the devices has downloaded a number ofelectronic content items that exceeds a predetermined threshold number,device synch module may determine that one or more unsolicitedelectronic content items should be deleted from at least one of thedevices. Device synch module 425 may additionally send profile andpolicy updates made by aggregator service 400 to the device to ensurethat the state of configuration data 440 is in synch with that of thedevice.

Trigger event processor 430 can handle notifications received fromsystems connected with aggregator service 400 that may affect electroniccontent on devices associated with profiles in profile data 441.Notifications received from ownership servers or content sourceproviders may be received by trigger event processor 430, causing it tosend device notifications 481 to connected devices to performunsolicited content storage area cleanup operations (e.g., to deleteparticular unsolicited electronic content items from device storage).Notifications may be received by trigger event processor 430 frommessaging services such as the Amazon® device messaging framework (ADM),or any other similar method. Trigger event processor 430 mayadditionally be invoked by device synch module 425 (as noted above) tosend notifications 481 to connected devices to perform unsolicitedcontent storage area cleanup operations.

Profile manager 435 may maintain the user profiles that subscribe toaggregator service 400 along with associated preference information,content access history, associated devices, or similar information inprofile data 441. Profile manager 435 may store profile relatedinformation in configuration data 440 and may additionally be invoked byother components of aggregator service 400 to obtain profile relatedinformation when collecting content for aggregated list 482. Profilemanager 435 may store device specific information such as available freespace, device performance characteristics, or similar information indevice characteristics 442. Profile manager 435 may use informationreceived in content map 490 to identify the list of content associatedwith particular profiles and downloaded to particular devices so thattrigger event processor 430 may direct device notifications 481 to theappropriate devices when device cleanup operations are to be performedto remove unsolicited electronic content.

In an illustrative example, aggregator service 400 may cause unsolicitedelectronic content to be stored on multiple devices associated with auser profile. The unsolicited electronic content may be electroniccontent that has been downloaded onto the devices without firstreceiving a download request from the user profile or an applicationrunning on the device. Aggregator service 400 may then receive a requestfrom one of the devices associated with the user profile to synchronizethe unsolicited electronic content stored on the device with the list ofelectronic content for the profile. Aggregator service 400 mayadditionally receive information describing the state of the unsolicitedelectronic content stored on the device that indicates whether theunsolicited electronic content has been accessed by the profile on therequesting device. In some embodiments, the state information may beincluded in the synchronization request. Alternatively, the stateinformation may have been previously received and stored inconfiguration data 440. Aggregator service 400 may determine, using thereceived information, that at least a portion of the unsolicitedelectronic content stored on the device has been accessed or deleted bythe profile on the device (e.g., the user may have viewed a portion of avideo on the requesting device).

Aggregator service 400 may determine that a copy of the unsolicitedelectronic content is also stored on a second device associated with theprofile. In some embodiments, aggregator service 400 may invoke profilemanager 435 to access profile data 441 use the information received incontent map 490 to determine whether the electronic content has beenstored on multiple devices for that profile. Aggregator service 400 maythen send a notification to the second device associated with theprofile to cause the second device to delete the copy of the unsolicitedelectronic content.

In an alternative embodiment, aggregator service 400 may determine acombined state of the electronic content for the profile using the stateof electronic content for each of the devices associated with theprofile. Aggregator service 400 may determine, from the combined stateof the electronic content, that a total number of electronic contentitems having a particular property are distributed across the devicesassociated with the user profile (e.g., the user profile has 20 videosdownloaded across both devices). Aggregator service 400 may thendetermine that the total number of electronic content items with theparticular property that are distributed across the devices exceeds apredetermined electronic content threshold (e.g., the number of videosdownloaded exceeds a threshold of 10). Upon determining that thethreshold number has been exceeded, aggregator service 400 may send anotification to one or more of the devices to delete an unsolicitedelectronic content item from the corresponding device storage.

In some embodiments, aggregator service 400 may send the notification tothe second device as an ADM notification to force a cleanup of theunsolicited content storage area of a storage component of the device.Alternatively, the notification may be sent as a modified list ofelectronic content for the profile.

Aggregator service 400 may create a new list of electronic content forthe device (following similar steps to those outlined above) andremoving from the new list any reference to the copy of the unsolicitedelectronic content that needs to be deleted. The new list may then besent to the second device, causing the second device to replace anyelectronic content in the unsolicited content storage area that has notyet been accessed (e.g., including but not limited to the copy of theelectronic content to be deleted) with content on the new list.

In one embodiment, aggregator service 400 updates an aggregated list fora first device associated with a profile based on activity of a seconddevice associated with the profile. For example, if a user watches alarge percentage of science fiction films on the second device, then theuser profile may be updated to indicate an affinity for science fiction.The aggregated list may then be updated to increase a ranking of sciencefiction content for the first device. The increased ranking may beapplied to content types other than the content types for which thebehavior was observed. For example, the rankings of science fictionbooks may be increased in the aggregated list for the first device inthe above mentioned example.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example device 500 thatincludes an unsolicited content manager 560. The device 500 maycorrespond to the device 102 of FIG. 1, devices 202/204 of FIG. 2,and/or device 300 of FIG. 3, and may be any type of mobile computingdevice such as an electronic book reader, a personal digital assistant(PDA), a mobile phone, a laptop computer, a portable media player, atablet computer, a camera, a video camera, a remote control, anautomobile, a wearable device (e.g., smart watch, body sensor, glasses,etc.), a barcode scanner, a portable speaker system, a netbook, acomputing pad, or other battery powered device.

The device 500 includes one or more processing devices 530. Eachprocessing device may be a general purpose processing device (e.g., amicroprocessor, central processing unit, or the like) or a specialpurpose processing device (e.g., an application specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a digital signalprocessor (DSP), network processor, or the like). The device 500 alsoincludes system memory 506, which may correspond to any combination ofvolatile and/or non-volatile storage mechanisms. The system memory 506stores information which provides an operating system component 508,various program modules 510 such as for an unsolicited content manager560, program data 512, device drivers 513, and/or other components. Thedevice 500 performs functions by using the processing device(s) 530 toexecute instructions provided by the system memory 506.

The device 500 also includes a data storage component 514 that may becomposed of one or more types of removable storage and/or one or moretypes of non-removable storage. The data storage component 514 includesa computer-readable storage medium 516 on which is stored one or moresets of instructions embodying any one or more of the methodologies orfunctions described herein. As shown, instructions for the unsolicitedcontent manager 560 may reside, completely or at least partially, withinthe computer readable storage medium 516, system memory 506 and/orwithin the processing device(s) 530 during execution thereof by thedevice 500, the system memory 506, and the processing device(s) 530 alsoconstituting computer-readable media. The device 500 may also includeone or more input devices 518 (keyboard, mouse device, specializedselection keys, touchpad, touch screen, etc.) and one or more outputdevices 520 (displays, printers, audio output mechanisms, etc.).

Device 500 may also include a battery 590 that provides a finite amountof power. The battery 590 may provide a consistent voltage and/oramperage to components of the device 500 until the battery reaches adrained state at which the battery 590 can no longer provide the voltageand/or amperage. When the battery 590 reaches this state, the device maybe suspended and/or turned off.

The device 500 may further include a wireless modem 522 to allow thedevice 500 to communicate via a wireless network (e.g., such as providedby the wireless communication systems) with other computing devices,such as remote computers, the server systems, and so forth. The wirelessmodem 522 may allow the device 500 to handle both voice and/or non-voicecommunications (such as communications for text messages, multimediamessages, media downloads, web browsing, etc.) with the wirelesscommunication system. The wireless modem 522 may provide networkconnectivity using any type of mobile network technology including, forexample, cellular digital packet data (CDPD), general packet radioservice (GPRS), enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE), universalmobile telecommunications system (UMTS), 1 times radio transmissiontechnology (1×RTT), evaluation data optimized (EVDO), high-speeddown-link packet access (HSDPA), long term evolution (LTE), worldwideinteroperability for microwave access (WIMAX), etc. The wireless modem522 may generate signals and send these signals to power amplifier (amp)580 for amplification, after which they are wirelessly transmitted viaantenna 584. In addition to sending data, antenna 584 may also receivedata (e.g., network packets), which is sent to wireless modem 522.

The device 500 may further include a wireless network interfacecontroller (WNIC) 523 to allow the device 500 to communicate via awireless network (e.g., such as provided by the wireless communicationsystems) with other computing devices, such as remote computers, theserver systems, and so forth. The WNIC 523 may be a Wi-Fi NIC, aBluetooth NIC, a Zigbee NIC, or other wireless NIC.

The WNIC 523 may generate signals and send these signals to poweramplifier (amp) 581 for amplification, after which they are wirelesslytransmitted via antenna 585. In addition to sending data, antenna 585may also receive data (e.g., network packets), which is sent to WNIC523. In one embodiment, the wireless modem 522, the WNIC 523 and theprocessing device(s) 530 are each discreet devices (e.g., each discreetintegrated circuits). Alternatively, one or more of the wireless modem522, WNIC 523, and processing devices 530 may be logics of a singleintegrated circuit.

In one embodiment, the device 500 includes a power management unit 595.The power management unit 595 is hardware (e.g., a microcontroller) thatgoverns power functions of the device 500. The power management unit mayinclude a processing device, firmware, software, memory, input/outputs,timers, analog to digital converters, and/or other components. The powermanagement unit 595 may monitor power connections and battery charge,charge the battery 590 when appropriate, control power to other hardwarecomponents (e.g., to hardware components 592, wireless modem 522, WNIC523, system memory 506, data storage 514, and so on), shut downcomponents and/or perform other operations. In one embodiment, theunsolicited content manager 560 may manage electronic content and freespace of device 500 (e.g., as described above and corresponding to themethods of FIGS. 7-13, etc.).

Device 500 may additionally include one or more additional hardwarecomponents 592, such as a light sensor, hardware accelerators (e.g.,audio codecs, graphics processors, etc.), a touch sensor, a proximitysensor, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and so forth.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a server computing device 600with an aggregator service 690, in accordance with one embodiment. Theserver computing device 600 may be connected (e.g., networked) to othermachines in a LAN, an intranet, an extranet, and/or the Internet. Theserver computing device 600 may be a personal computer (PC), a tabletPC, a set-top box (STB), a web appliance, a rackmount server, a networkrouter, a switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing a set ofinstructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be takenby that machine. Further, while a single machine is illustrated, theserver computing device 600 shall also be taken to include anycollection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (ormultiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein. For example, the server computing device600 may be one or more devices in a server system. In one embodiment,the server computing device 600 is one node of a cluster that provides acloud service such as Amazon's® elastic compute cloud (EC2®), Amazon webservices (AWS®), or other cloud service.

The server computing device 600 includes a processing device 602, a mainmemory 604 (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, dynamic randomaccess memory (DRAM) such as synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) or DRAM (RDRAM),etc.), a static memory 606 (e.g., flash memory, static random accessmemory (SRAM), etc.), and a data storage component 618, whichcommunicate with each other via a bus 630.

Processing device 602 represents one or more general-purpose processingdevices such as a microprocessor, a central processing unit, or thelike. More particularly, the processing device may be complexinstruction set computing (CISC) microprocessor, reduced instruction setcomputing (RISC) microprocessor, very long instruction word (VLIW)microprocessor, or processor implementing other instruction sets, orprocessors implementing a combination of instruction sets. Processingdevice 602 may also be one or more special-purpose processing devicessuch as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP),network processor, or the like. The processing device 602 is configuredto execute instructions 622 for performing the operations and stepsdiscussed herein.

The server computing device 600 may further include a network interfacedevice 608. The server computing device 600 also may include a videodisplay unit 610 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode raytube (CRT)), an alphanumeric input device 612 (e.g., a keyboard), acursor control device 414 (e.g., a mouse), and/or a signal generationdevice 616 (e.g., a speaker).

The data storage component 618 may include a machine-readable storagemedium 628 (also known as a computer-readable medium) on which is storedone or more sets of instructions or software 622 embodying any one ormore of the methodologies or functions described herein. Theinstructions 622 may also reside, completely or at least partially,within the main memory 604 and/or within the processing device 602during execution thereof by the server computing device 600, the mainmemory 604 and the processing device 602 also constitutingmachine-readable storage media.

In one implementation, the instructions 622 include instructions for anaggregator service 690 (e.g., aggregator service 104 of FIG. 1,aggregator service 240 of FIG. 2, and/or aggregator service 400 of FIG.4) and/or a software library containing methods that call modules in anaggregator service (e.g., corresponding to the methods of FIGS. 14-18,etc.). While the machine-readable storage medium 628 is shown in anexample implementation to be a single medium, the term “machine-readablestorage medium” should be taken to include a single medium or multiplemedia (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associatedunsolicited content storage areas and servers) that store the one ormore sets of instructions. The term “machine-readable storage medium”shall also be taken to include any medium other than a carrier wave thatis capable of storing or encoding a set of instructions for execution bythe machine and that cause the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies of the present disclosure. The term “machine-readablestorage medium” shall accordingly be taken to include, but not belimited to, solid-state memories, optical media, and magnetic media.

FIGS. 7-13 are flow diagrams of various embodiments of methods performedby a device to manage a free space buffer threshold. The methods areperformed by processing logic that may include hardware (circuitry,dedicated logic, etc.), software (such as is run on a general purposecomputer system or a dedicated machine), firmware, or some combinationthereof. In one implementation, the methods may be performed by device102 of FIG. 1, unsolicited content manager 230 of devices 202-204 ofFIG. 2, unsolicited content manager 320 of device 300 of FIG. 3, and/orunsolicited content manager 560 of device 500 of FIG. 5.

For simplicity of explanation, the methods are depicted and described asa series of acts. However, acts in accordance with this disclosure canoccur in various orders and/or concurrently, and with other acts notpresented and described herein. Furthermore, not all illustrated actsmay be performed to implement the methods in accordance with thedisclosed subject matter. In addition, those skilled in the art willunderstand and appreciate that the methods could alternatively berepresented as a series of interrelated states via a state diagram orevents. Additionally, it should be appreciated that the methodsdisclosed in this specification are capable of being stored on anarticle of manufacture to facilitate transporting and transferring suchmethods to computing devices. The term article of manufacture, as usedherein, is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from anycomputer-readable device or storage media.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method 700 of predictingthe size of a free space buffer threshold. At block 705 of method 700,processing logic determines configuration data associated with a device.This may include performing a lookup on a list, file, or data structurethat includes configuration settings and/or defaults. Configuration datamay include a minimum write speed associated with a storage component ofthe device (e.g., the rate at which device may write data to devicestorage), a minimum free space buffer threshold associated with thestorage component of the device (e.g., a seed threshold that can bereceived by the content delivery system as a default setting), a lowstorage threshold for the storage component of the device (e.g., theminimum amount of free space required by the operating system tofunction), or other similar information.

At block 710, processing logic analyzes the configuration data withrespect to storage usage data collected over a previous time period. Insome implementations, this may include comparing a portion of theconfiguration data (e.g., a default or minimum write speed) to a portionof the storage usage data (e.g., an observed write speed). For example,processing logic may monitor device storage over a particular period oftime (e.g., every 60 seconds, every 120 seconds, every 30 seconds, andso on) to determine statistics related to write speed, total devicestorage used, total free space available, etc. for use in the analysis.At block 715, processing logic determines a maximum amount of storagespace of a storage component for the device to be written to in a futuretime period. The future time period may be a time interval at which thedevice analyzes the state of the storage usage of the device (e.g., thatshows how much space is remaining on a storage component of the device).In some implementations, this may be performed as described above withrespect to device state monitor 324 of FIG. 3. In some implementations,processing logic may determine the maximum amount of storage asdescribed below with respect to FIG. 10.

At block 720, processing logic determines a free space buffer thresholdfor a free space buffer of the storage component of the device to begreater than the maximum amount of storage space that is predicted to bewritten to in the future time period. In some implementations,processing logic may add a predetermined fixed value to the value of themaximum amount of storage space to be consumed in the future time periodto set the free space buffer threshold. For example, processing logicmay add a fixed 250 MB value to the maximum to yield the free spacebuffer threshold. Alternatively, processing logic may calculate a valueto be added to the maximum. For example, processing logic may determinean average file size for electronic content items on the device.Processing logic may then add the average file size value to the maximumto account for the addition of a file to device storage. At block 725,processing logic determines a total amount of free storage space for thestorage component of the device. Processing logic may determine thetotal amount of free storage space by accessing file system informationstored on the device. At block 730, processing logic sets a size for anunsolicited content storage area of the storage component of the device.In some implementations, the unsolicited content storage area size maybe at least the total amount of free storage space available in thestorage component of the device minus the free space buffer thresholdvalue. Total free space may represent the total size of a storagecomponent (or group of storage components) minus an amount of spaceoccupied by standard content). In an illustrative example, theunsolicited content storage area may correspond to an area of thestorage component of the device that is to be used for storage ofunsolicited electronic content for a user profile. After block 730, themethod of FIG. 7 terminates.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method 800 of increasinga free space buffer threshold when data is written faster than it can bedeleted. At block 805 of method 800, processing logic determines a writespeed associated with the storage space of a device. In someimplementations, the write speed may be the larger of a minimum defaultwrite speed associated with the device and an observed write speedmeasured over a previous time period. The observed write speed may becomputed by incrementally decreasing a previously recorded maximum writespeed over successive monitoring time periods. At each monitoringinterval, processing logic may determine a new observed write speed, andadditionally compare the new observed write speed to a weighted previousmaximum write speed. The weight that is applied to the previous maximumwrite speed may be decreased over time based on how long it has beensince the previous maximum write speed was recorded. The weightedobserved write speed may be the larger of the new observed write speedand the weighted previous maximum write speed. Thus, an observed writespeed that is calculated during a monitoring period where a greateramount of data has been written to storage will not cause the determinedbuffer threshold to remain inappropriately large for successivemonitoring periods where the actual storage space usage decreases. Insome implementations, this may be performed as described above withrespect to device state monitor 324 of FIG. 3. At block 810, processinglogic determines a delete speed associated with the storage space of thedevice (e.g., the rate at which data may be deleted from the storagespace of the device). In some implementations, processing logic maymonitor the storage component to obtain statistical informationregarding input and output operations associated with the storagecomponent in order to determine the delete speed.

At block 815, processing logic determines whether data can be deletedfrom the unsolicited content storage area faster than the free spacebuffer can be filled. In an illustrative example, the unsolicitedcontent storage area corresponds to an area of the storage component ofthe device that is to be used for storage of unsolicited content. Insome implementations, processing logic may make this determination bycomparing the observed write speed to the delete speed. If the deletespeed is faster than the observed write speed, then data can be deletedfaster than the buffer can be filled.

In some implementations, processing logic may make the determination byfirst determining a first rate at which solicited content is added tothe free space buffer on the storage component. This rate may be anamount of data written to the storage component in an instance of amonitoring time interval. For example, if the monitoring time intervalis 60 seconds, the rate may be determined to be the amount of datawritten during a 60 second time period (e.g., in megabytes (MB) perminute). Processing logic may then determine that deletion of theunsolicited content from the unsolicited content storage area of thestorage component is performed at a second rate, where the second rateis an amount of data that is deleted in the instance of the timeinterval. Processing logic may then determine that the first rate (therate at which solicited content is added) is higher than the second rate(the rate at which unsolicited content is deleted) by a rate delta(e.g., the difference between the two rates). For example, if the firstrate is 4 MB/minute and the second rate is 3 MB/minute, the rate deltacould be 1 MB/minute. Processing logic may then determine a delta amountof storage space associated with the rate delta. The delta amount ofstorage may be determined over the time interval using the rate delta.For example, where the rate delta is 1 MB/minute, the delta amount ofstorage over a 1 minute period could be 1 MB.

At block 820, processing logic branches based on the determination atblock 815. If data can be deleted faster than the free space buffer canbe filled, the method of FIG. 8 terminates, confirming the size of thefree space buffer threshold. If not, processing logic proceeds to block825. At block 825, processing logic determines a new free space bufferthreshold that is larger than the current free space buffer threshold(e.g., increases the size of the free space buffer threshold). In someimplementations, processing logic may increase the free space bufferthreshold size by a fixed amount (e.g., 4 MB). Alternatively, processinglogic may increase the buffer threshold size by a percentage value(e.g., by 10 percent of its current value). In some implementations,processing logic may determine the new free space buffer threshold thatis larger than the previous free space buffer threshold by increasingthe free space buffer threshold by at least the delta amount of storagespace from block 815. In the above example, 1 MB may be added to theprevious free space buffer threshold to account for the rate delta forthe subsequent time interval. Processing logic may then determine a newsize for the unsolicited content storage area that is smaller than theprevious size of the unsolicited content area. For example, processinglogic may determine the new size to be equal to the total amount of freestorage on the storage component minus the new free space bufferthreshold. After block 825, the method of FIG. 8 terminates.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method 900 of adjustinga free space buffer threshold using historical information associatedwith an application. At block 905 of method 900, processing logicidentifies an application on a device. Processing logic may identify anapplication that is running on the device, or an application that isinstalled on the device, but not currently running.

At block 910, processing logic determines historical storage spaceutilization associated with the application. In some implementations,processing logic may determine the historical storage space utilizationfor the application using historical information associated with theactive user profile of the device (e.g., the user currently using thedevice). Alternatively, processing logic may determine the historicalstorage space utilization using historical information associated withother user profiles associated with the device (e.g., other users whohave used the device but are not currently using the device), orhistorical information associated with other devices. For example, if arunning application is a camera application that can capture and storebursts of high resolution photos, processing logic may determine thathistorical usage of the application indicates that when running, theapplication can use up storage quickly (e.g., by storing large amountsof high resolution photos in a very short period of time).

At block 915, processing logic determines a new free space buffer inaccordance with the historical space utilization from block 910. Forexample, when the aforementioned camera app is running, processing logicmay increase the free space buffer size to account for bursts of photosbeing saved. Similarly, if the camera app is installed but not running,processing logic may increase the free space buffer size to account forexpected camera activity should the application be invoked at some timein the future. In some implementations, processing logic may increasethe free space buffer threshold size by a fixed amount (e.g., 4 MB).Alternatively, processing logic may increase the buffer threshold sizeby a percentage value (e.g., by 10 percent of its current value). Afterblock 915, the method of FIG. 9 terminates.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method 1000 ofdetermining a predicted maximum amount of storage space of a device tobe consumed during a future time period. At block 1005 of method 1000,processing logic determines a minimum write speed associated with astorage component of a device. At block 1010, processing logicdetermines an observed write speed associated with the storage componentof the device. In some implementations, the observed write speed may bea weighted observed write speed measured over a previous time period.The weighted observed write speed may be computed by incrementallydecreasing a previously recorded maximum write speed over successivemonitoring time periods. At each monitoring cycle (e.g., after eachinstance of a time monitoring interval), processing logic may determinea recent write speed, (e.g., a write speed over an instance of the timeinterval), generate a reduced observed write speed by applying a weightof less than one to a previously measured observed write speed, andcompare the recent write speed to the reduced observed write speed todetermine the new observed write speed. The weight that is applied tothe previous maximum write speed may be first set to a weight of lessthan one, and decreased over time based on how long it has been sincethe previous maximum write speed was recorded. The new observed writespeed may be the larger of the reduced observed write speed and therecent write speed. Thus, an observed write speed that is calculatedduring a monitoring period where a greater amount of data has beenwritten to storage will not cause the determined buffer threshold toremain inappropriately large for successive monitoring periods where theactual storage space usage decreases. In some implementations, this maybe performed as described above with respect to device state monitor 324of FIG. 3. At block 1015, processing logic determines a larger of theminimum write speed or the observed write speed to be the maximum writespeed in the future time period.

At block 1020, processing logic determines a time interval (e.g., a 60second interval) at which the device determines a total amount of freestorage space available on the storage component of the device. At block1025, processing logic multiplies the maximum write speed by the timeinterval to determine the maximum amount of storage space of the storagecomponent of the device that is predicted to be written to in the futuretime period. After block 1025, the method of FIG. 10 terminates.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method 1100 ofadjusting the size of the free space buffer threshold. At block 1105 ofmethod 1100, processing logic determines the storage space usage of astorage component of a device over a new time period. In an illustrativeexample, the storage space usage may include writes to the storagecomponent and deletions from the storage component. Determining thestorage space usage may include determining a total free storage spacefor a storage component (space that remains after subtracting size ofstandard content from size of storage component) as well as determiningan available free storage space for the storage component (space thatremains after subtracting size of the unsolicited content storage areafrom the total free space). A size of the unsolicited content storagearea may be dynamic. As additional standard content is added to thestorage component the total free storage space will shrink and the sizeof the unsolicited content storage area will be reduced accordingly. Asstandard content is deleted from the storage component, the total freestorage space will grow, and the size of the unsolicited content storagearea will be increased accordingly. In some implementations, this may beperformed as described above with respect to device storage monitor 340of FIG. 3.

At block 1110, processing logic determines based on the storage spaceusage of the storage component whether the amount of available freespace on the storage component of the device exceeds the free spacebuffer threshold (e.g., whether the amount of available free space onthe device exceeds the minimum amount of free space needed). If so,processing logic continues to block 1115. Otherwise, processing proceedsto block 1120. At block 1115, processing logic determines a new freespace buffer threshold that is smaller than the current free spacebuffer threshold (e.g., decreases the free space buffer threshold). Insome implementations, processing logic may decrease the free spacebuffer threshold size by a fixed amount (e.g., 4 MB). Alternatively,processing logic may reduce the buffer threshold size by a percentagevalue (e.g., by 10 percent of its current value). At block 1120,processing logic determines based on the storage space usage whether theavailable free space on the device falls below the free space bufferthreshold (e.g., whether the amount of free space on the device is lessthan the minimum amount of free space needed). If so, processingcontinues to block 1125. Otherwise, the method of FIG. 11 terminates. Atblock 1125, processing logic determines a new free space bufferthreshold that is larger than the current free space buffer threshold(e.g., increases the free space buffer threshold). In someimplementations, processing logic may increase the free space bufferthreshold size by a fixed amount (e.g., 4 MB). Alternatively, processinglogic may increase the buffer threshold size by a percentage value(e.g., by 10 percent of its current value). After block 1125, the methodof FIG. 11 terminates.

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method 1200 fordetermining a free space buffer threshold according to a device downloadspeed. At block 1205 of method 1200, processing logic determines adownload speed associated with a network connection of a device.Processing logic may make this determination by collecting statisticalinformation when electronic content is downloaded to the device andmaintaining an average download speed in a local storage location.Alternatively, processing logic may determine the download speeddynamically by sending and receiving packets to a network locationperiodically while the device is active. At block 1210, processing logicdetermines a delete speed associated with a storage component of thedevice (e.g., the rate at which data may be deleted from the storagespace of the device). In some implementations, processing logic maymonitor the storage space of the device to obtain statisticalinformation regarding input and output operations associated with thestorage space in order to determine the delete speed. At block 1215,processing logic determines whether the delete speed is faster than thedownload speed. If so (e.g., indicating that the free space bufferthreshold may be sufficient because electronic content may be deletedfrom the device faster than it can be added), processing proceeds toblock 1220 where processing logic confirms the free space bufferthreshold. Otherwise (e.g., indicating that the free space bufferthreshold may be insufficient because electronic content may bedownloaded faster than it may be deleted), processing proceeds to block1225, where processing logic increases the free space buffer threshold.At block 1230, processing logic then stores the new free space bufferthreshold. Processing logic may store the new free space bufferthreshold in a memory space, in a configuration file, or in any othermanner. After either block 1220 or block 1230, the method of FIG. 12terminates.

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method 1300 ofmodifying a free space buffer threshold based on changes in observedstorage usage. At block 1305 of method 1300, processing logic determinesan observed write speed associated with a storage space of a device overan initial time period. In some implementations the observed write speedmay be an initial write speed of the device associated withconfiguration settings. Alternatively, the observed write speed may be aweighted observed write speed over the initial time period. The weightedobserved write speed may be used to incrementally decrease a previouslycalculated write speed over successive monitoring time intervals. Thus,an observed write speed that is calculated during a monitoring timeinterval where a greater amount of data has been written to storage willnot cause the determined buffer threshold space to remaininappropriately large for successive monitoring periods where the actualstorage space usage decreases. In some implementations, this may beperformed as described above with respect to device state monitor 324 ofFIG. 3.

At block 1310, processing logic determines a new observed write speedassociated with the storage space of the device after the instance of atime interval. In some implementations, processing logic may firstdetermine a recent write speed over the instance of the time interval(e.g., the measured write speed associated with the storage componentover the time interval). Processing logic may then generate a reducedobserved write speed by applying a weight of less than one to thepreviously measured observed write speed. Processing logic may thendetermine the new observed write speed to be the larger of the reducedobserved write speed and the recent write speed. In someimplementations, this may be performed as described above with respectto device state monitor 324 of FIG. 3. At block 1315, processing logicmultiplies the new observed write speed by the time interval todetermine a new predicted storage space usage of the storage component.At block 1320, processing logic determines a new free space bufferthreshold to be greater than the new predicted storage space usage.After block 1320, the method of FIG. 11 terminates.

FIGS. 14-20 are flow diagrams of various embodiments of methods relatedto managing the content for multiple profiles and multiple devices by anaggregator service. The methods are performed by processing logic thatmay include hardware (circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software (suchas is run on a general purpose computer system or a dedicated machine),firmware, or some combination thereof. In one implementation, themethods may be performed by a server system (e.g., by a cloud serviceprovided by a server system). Example systems that may perform themethods of FIGS. 14-20 include aggregator service 104 of FIG. 1,aggregator service 240 of FIG. 2, aggregator service 400 of FIG. 4, andaggregator service 690 of server computing device 600 of FIG. 4.

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method 1400 of managingelectronic content across multiple devices. At block 1405 of method1400, processing logic causes unsolicited electronic content to bestored on a first device associated with a profile and a second deviceassociated with a profile. Unsolicited electronic content may beelectronic content that has been downloaded onto the device withoutfirst receiving a download request from the profile or an applicationrunning on the device. In some implementations, this may be performed asdescribed above with respect to aggregator service 400 of FIG. 4. Atblock 1410, processing logic receives a synchronization request from thefirst device associated with the profile. In some implementations, thesynchronization request may be a request to synchronize electroniccontent stored on the device with a list of content for the profile. Insome implementations, the synchronization request may be received asdescribed above with respect to device synch module 425 of aggregatorservice 400 of FIG. 4. At block 1415, processing logic receives stateinformation from the first device. In some implementations the stateinformation indicates whether the electronic content (e.g., bothsolicited and unsolicited electronic content) has been accessed by theprofile on the first device. In some implementations, the stateinformation may be included in the synchronization request.Alternatively, the state information may have been previously receivedand stored in configuration data. In some implementations, the stateinformation may be received as described above with respect to devicesynch module 425 of aggregator service 400 of FIG. 4.

At block 1420, processing logic determines that a portion of theunsolicited electronic content stored on the first device has beenaccessed or deleted by the profile on the first device (e.g., a user mayhave viewed a portion of a video on the requesting device). In someimplementations, the state may be determined as described above withrespect to device synch module 425 of aggregator service 400 of FIG. 4.At block 1425, processing logic determines that a copy of theunsolicited electronic content is stored on a second device associatedwith the profile. In some implementations, this can be determined asdescribed above with respect to profile manager 435 of aggregatorservice 400 of FIG. 4. At block 1430, processing logic sends anotification to the second device to delete the copy of the unsolicitedelectronic content from the second device. In some implementations, thismay be performed as described above with respect to trigger eventprocessor 430 of aggregator service 400 of FIG. 4. In someimplementations, processing logic may send the notification to thesecond device as described below with respect to FIG. 15. After block1430, the method of FIG. 14 terminates.

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method 1500 of sendinga notification to a second device responsive to activity on a firstdevice. At block 1505 of method 1500, processing logic determines a listof content for a first device associated with a profile. In someimplementations, processing logic may determine the list for the firstdevice in response to a request for content as described above withrespect to request processor 405 of aggregator service 400 of FIG. 4.Alternatively, processing logic may determine the list in response to arequest received from the first device to synchronize content stored onthe first device with content stored on other devices associated withthe profile as described above with respect to device synch module 425of aggregator service 400 of FIG. 4. At block 1510, processing logicreceives state information from the first device. In someimplementations the state information indicates whether the content(e.g., both solicited and unsolicited electronic content) has beenaccessed by the profile on the device. In some implementations, thestate information may be included in a synchronization request.Alternatively, the state information may have been previously receivedand stored in configuration data.

At block 1515, processing logic determines that unsolicited contentshould be deleted from a second device associated with the profile. Insome implementations, processing logic may determine that the contentshould be deleted from the second device because the content on thesecond device is a copy of content has been accessed by or deleted fromthe first device. Alternatively, processing logic may determine that thecontent should be deleted because the number of content items associatedwith the profile across the first and second devices exceeds apredefined threshold value. At block 1520, processing logic determines amodified list of content for the profile. In some implementations,processing logic may determine the modified list of content by modifyingthe list of content for the first device to create a list of content forthe profile using information describing the attributes of the seconddevice (e.g., content currently stored on the device, available freespace on the second device, etc.). In some implementations, this may bedetermined as described above with respect to list builder 415 ofaggregator service 400 of FIG. 4. In some implementations, processinglogic determines the modified list of content as described below withrespect to FIG. 16.

At block 1525, processing logic removes the copy of the content from themodified list that should be deleted (e.g., the content identified atblock 1515 that should be deleted from the second device). For example,once the new list of content has been determined at block 1520,processing logic may remove any content items identified at block 1515then need to be deleted from the second device. The resulting modifiedlist can indicate to the second device that any content item, which isloaded on the device but no longer present on the modified list, shouldbe deleted from device storage. For example, processing logic may storeentries of electronic content items in the list to stored unsolicitedelectronic content items. Stored unsolicited content items that are nolonger on the list may then be deleted. In some implementations, thismay be performed as described above with respect to server interactionmodule 327 of FIG. 3. Alternatively, processing logic may receiveinstructions to download and/or delete specific content items and/or toadd or remove entries for content items from an already stored list. Atblock 1530, processing logic sends the modified list to the seconddevice. In some implementations, this may be performed as describedabove with respect to response generator 420 of aggregator service 400of FIG. 4. After block 1530, the method of FIG. 15 terminates.

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method 1600 of creatinga modified list of content for a device. At block 1605 of method 1600,processing logic receives a first list of content for a user profilefrom a first content source. For example, processing logic may receive alist of videos for the profile in a ranked order. The ranked order canbe based on content preferences associated with the profile. Forexample, if the user prefers movies over television shows, the contentpreference associated with the user profile may cause the ranked orderto be such that movies are ranked higher on the list than televisionshows. At block 1610, processing logic receives a second list of contentfrom a second content source. For example, processing logic may receivea list of electronic books for the profile in a ranked order. The secondlist may be ranked in a similar fashion to the first list as notedabove.

At block 1615, processing logic determines an amount of available freespace on a device associated with the profile. In some implementations,processing logic determines the amount of available free space by firstsending a request to the device for a report on the amount of availablefree space. Processing logic may then receive a response from the devicethat identifies the amount of available free space. In someimplementations, processing logic may determine the amount of availablefree space on a device using other information received from the device.For example, processing logic may receive data identifying a totalamount of free space on a device that includes the size of a storagecomponent (e.g., device storage 330 of FIG. 3) minus an amount ofcontent other than unsolicited content stored on the storage component.Processing logic may also receive data identifying a free space bufferthreshold for a free space buffer on the storage component. Processinglogic may also receive data identifying an amount of space on thestorage component occupied by unsolicited content (e.g., the amount ofspace occupied by unsolicited content storage area 334 of FIG. 3).Processing logic may compute the available free space by subtracting thevalue of the free space buffer threshold and the amount of storage spaceoccupied by the unsolicited content from the total amount of free spaceon the device.

At block 1620, processing logic identifies a content preference for theprofile. In some implementations, the content preference indicates acontent type most likely to be selected for the user profile based onpast selections for the user profile. For example, in addition to thecontent preferences noted above, the user profile may have a contentpreference that indicates that the user prefers electronic books tovideos.

At block 1625, processing logic creates a modified list by selecting atleast one content item from the first list or the second list accordingto the content preference for the user profile, where the content typeof the content item matches the identified content preference.Additionally, processing logic may account for the storage size of thecontent item. Depending on the amount of free space available on thedevice, processing logic may skip items from either list based on thesize of the individual content items. For example, even though a usermay prefer videos, processing logic may select a series of electronicbooks if the amount of free space is not sufficient to store a videofile. Conversely, if even though a user may prefer electronic books, ifthere is a large amount of free space available on the device,processing logic may select videos along with electronic books for themodified list. In some implementations, the steps at blocks 1605-1625may be performed as described above with respect to list builder 415 ofaggregator service 400 of FIG. 4.

At block 1630, processing logic determines that the device is associatedwith a second user profile. In some implementations, the second userprofile may be different from the user profile identified at block 1605,and associated with the same user account as the user profile identifiedat block 1605. A user account can include payment and shippinginformation for online retail purchases made in connection with the userprofile and the second user profile. In some implementations, this maybe performed as described above with respect to request processor 405 ofaggregator service 400 of FIG. 4. At block 1635, processing logicdetermines an additional list of content for the second profile. Atblock 1640, processing logic selects at least one content item from theadditional list created at block 1635. At block 1645, processing logicadds the at least one content item selected at block 1640 to themodified list created at block 1625. In some implementations, the stepsat blocks 1634-1645 may be performed as described above with respect tolist builder 415 of aggregator service 400 of FIG. 4. After block 1645,the method of FIG. 16 terminates.

FIG. 17 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method 1700 of managingcontent for a profile stored across multiple devices. At block 1705 ofmethod 1700, processing logic sends a first list of content comprisingan unsolicited content item to be stored on device first deviceassociated with a user profile. The unsolicited content may be contentthat has been downloaded onto the device without first receiving adownload request from the user profile or an application running on thedevice. In some implementations, this may be performed as describedabove with respect to aggregator service 400 of FIG. 4. At block 1710,processing logic receives information describing a state of storagespace stored on the first device. The state of the storage space mayinclude information identifying the content items downloaded into astorage component of the first device, the size of each content item onthe first device, whether the content items on the first device havebeen accessed or deleted by the user profile, the amount of total freespace and/or available free space remaining on the first device, etc.

At block 1715, processing logic determines a second state of contentstored on a second device associated with the profile. The second stateof the content may include information identifying the content itemsdownloaded into device storage of the second device, the size of eachcontent item on the second device, whether the content items on thesecond device have been accessed or deleted by the user, the amount oftotal free space and/or available free space remaining on the seconddevice, etc.

At block 1720, processing logic determines a second list of contentusing the state of storage space on the first device and at least one ofthe total amount of free space on the second device or the availableamount of free space on the second device. A content item that is largerthan the available free space may not presently fit into the unsolicitedcontent storage area, but may eventually fit into it as otherunsolicited content items are removed therefrom. However, a content itemthat is smaller than a difference between a size of the available freespace and a size of the free space buffer threshold may immediately fitinto the unsolicited content storage area. At block 1725, processinglogic sends the second list to the second device. In someimplementations, this may be performed as described above with respectto trigger event processor 430 of aggregator service 400 of FIG. 4.After block 1730, the method of FIG. 17 terminates.

FIG. 18 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method 1800 of managingelectronic content across multiple devices. At block 1805 of method1800, processing logic receives information describing a state ofstorage space on a first device associated with a user profile. In someimplementations the state information indicates whether electroniccontent (e.g., both solicited and unsolicited electronic content) hasbeen accessed by the user profile on the first device. In someimplementations, the state information may be included in asynchronization request received from a device. Alternatively, the stateinformation may have been previously received and stored inconfiguration data. In some implementations, the state information maybe received as described above with respect to device synch module 425of aggregator service 400 of FIG. 4.

At block 1810, processing logic determines that an unsolicited contentitem is stored on the first device and has been accessed or deleted bythe user profile on the first device. (e.g., a user may have viewed aportion of a video on the requesting mobile device). In someimplementations, the state may be determined as described above withrespect to device synch module 425 of aggregator service 400 of FIG. 4.At block 1815, processing logic determines that the unsolicited contentitem is also stored on the second device. In some implementations, thismay be determined as described above with respect to profile manager 435of aggregator service 400 of FIG. 4. At block 1820, processing logicsends a notification to the second device to cause the second device todelete the unsolicited electronic content item. In some implementations,processing logic may send the notification to the second device bytransmitting an instruction to the device to delete the unsolicitedelectronic content item. Alternatively, processing logic may send thenotification as a modified list of content that causes the second deviceto delete the unsolicited electronic content item with other electroniccontent items included in the modified list. In some implementations,this may be performed as described above with respect to trigger eventprocessor 430 of FIG. 4. After block 1820, the method of FIG. 18terminates.

FIG. 19 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method 1900 of deletingunsolicited content from multiple devices. At block 1905 of method 1900,processing logic determines a number of electronic content items havinga particular property on a first device associated with a user profile.For example, processing logic may determine the total number of videosthat are stored on the device. The number of electronic content itemscan include solicited electronic content (e.g., electronic content itemsthat have been downloaded to the device in response to a request from auser) or unsolicited content (e.g., electronic content itemsspeculatively downloaded for the profile associated with the device). Atblock 1910, processing logic determines a second number of electroniccontent items having the particular property on a second deviceassociated with the profile. The second number of electronic contentitems can include solicited electronic content (e.g., electronic contentitems that have been downloaded to the second device in response to arequest from a user) or unsolicited content (e.g., electronic contentitems speculatively downloaded for the profile associated with thesecond device). At block 1915, processing logic determines that thefirst number of electronic content items plus the second number ofelectronic content items equals a value that exceeds an electroniccontent threshold. For example, processing logic may determine that 20videos have been downloaded across the two devices. If the maximumnumber of videos that a user may maintain across multiple devices is 19,and the user has downloaded 20, the threshold has been exceeded. In someimplementations, blocks 1905-1915 may be performed as described abovewith respect to aggregator service 400 of FIG. 4.

At block 1920, processing logic sends a delete notification to the firstdevice associated with the profile to delete an unsolicited content itemstored on that device. At block 1925, processing logic sends a seconddelete notification to the second device associated with the profile todelete an additional unsolicited content item stored on that device. Insome implementations, the steps at blocks 1920-1925 may be performed asdescribed above with respect to trigger event processor 430 ofaggregator service 400 of FIG. 4.

FIG. 20 is a flow diagram of an embodiment for a method 2000 formanaging unsolicited electronic content on multiple devices. At block2005 of method 2000, processing logic determines a first list ofelectronic content associated with a user profile. In someimplementations, the first list of electronic content may include a listof movies for a particular user profile based on a set of preferencesassociated with the user profile (e.g., based on prior electroniccontent purchases, prior electronic content viewings, etc.).

At block 2010, processing logic sends the first list to a deviceassociated with the user profile. In some implementations the list maycause the device to store a first unsolicited electronic content fromthe first list. For example, processing logic may send the list ofcontent to a television set top device associated with the user profile,causing the set top box to store data representing a digital movieidentified in the list of content.

At block 2015, processing logic determines a second list of electroniccontent associated with the user profile. In some implementations, thesecond list may include a different type of electronic content than thefirst list. For example, the second list may include a list ofelectronic books for the user profile based on the set of preferencesassociated with the user profile.

At block 2020, processing logic sends the second list to a second deviceassociated with the user profile. In some implementations, the list maycause the second device to store a second unsolicited electronic contentfrom the second list. For example, processing logic may send the secondlist to a tablet computer associated with the user profile, causing thetablet computer to store data representing an electronic book identifiedin the second list of electronic content.

At block 2025, processing logic receives a synchronization request fromthe first device. In some implementations, the synchronization requestcan include a request to synchronize the unsolicited electronic contentstored on the first device with the first list. For example, thesynchronization request may be a request to synchronize unsolicitedelectronic content on a television set top device with the list ofmovies for the user profile.

At block 2030, processing logic receives information describing thestate of the first unsolicited electronic content from the first listthat is stored on the first device, where the information indicatesinteractions with the first unsolicited electronic content. For example,the information may indicate whether the first unsolicited digitalcontent has been accessed by the user profile on the first device. Forexample, processing logic may receive information describing the stateof an unsolicited video item stored on the television set top devicethat indicates whether the video has been accessed by the user profileon the television set top device. At block 2035, processing logicdetermines, using the information received at block 2030, a preferencefor content having a particular characteristic. The particularcharacteristic may be a genre (e.g., science fiction, fantasy,non-fiction, mystery, etc.), a length, an author, an actor, a year ofrelease, a depicted time period, a subject, a content type, and so on.For example, processing logic can determine that a user profile maydemonstrate a preference for video content after having viewed a videoitem stored on the set top device. In another example, processing logicmay determine that a user profile frequently accesses titles (e.g.,movies, TV shows, books, etc.) corresponding to a specific genre.

At block 2040, processing logic determines an updated second list ofelectronic content. In some implementations, the updated second list ofelectronic content may be determined by increasing a ranking associatedwith one or more of the electronic content items from the second listthat have the particular characteristic from block 2035. For example,the rank of each video item in the second list may be increased todetermine the updated second list. In another example, the ranks of allcontent items corresponding to a particular genre may have their ranksincreased regardless of content type. At block 2045, processing logicsends the updated second list of electronic content to the seconddevice. For example, the updated second list may be sent to the tabletcomputer. After block 2045, the method of FIG. 20 terminates.

FIG. 21 is a diagram of an embodiment of a list 2100 of electroniccontent for multiple profiles associated with a device. While, forsimplicity, the list of electronic content is presented in FIG. 21 as atable data structure containing particular data items, variousembodiments can maintain the list of electronic content in other typesof data structures and containing other data items. List 2100illustrates an example list of content associated with multiple profilesfor a device capable of presenting video content, audio content, andelectronic books (e.g., a tablet computer). In an alternativeembodiment, a list associated with a device only capable of displayingvideo content (e.g., a television set top device) may only include videoand audio content items. Each device associated with a user profile (orset of user profiles associated with a user account) may be associatedwith a unique list 2100.

Content name 2101 can include an identifier for the electronic contentitem, such as the title of a movie, the title of a book, a serialnumber, an inventory number etc. Content size 2102 can represent thesize (e.g., in megabytes) of the data content corresponding electroniccontent item. Content type 2103 can represent the type of electroniccontent associated with the content item, such as audio, video, etc.User profile ID 2104 can include the user profile identifier associatedwith the content item. In some implementations, each content item in thelist may be associated with the same profile, and thus have the samevalue for User profile ID 2104. Alternatively, the list 2100 may beconstructed for all user profiles associated with a single device, asillustrated in FIG. 21. For example, three user profiles (Dad, Mom, andTeen) may be associated with a tablet computer device. Thus, a list 2100for the shared tablet computer device can include items for Dad, Mom,and Teen.

Adult content identifier 2105 can represent an indicator that signifieswhether the associated electronic content item may be accessible to auser profile that is not an adult profile. For example, user Teen maynot be able to obtain access to Movie 1 or Movie 2 which have set asadult content. Content genre 2106 can represent a category associatedwith the corresponding content item. Content rank 2107 can represent theranking associated with the corresponding content item as determinedaccording to a set of preferences associated with the user profiles. Forexample, if the associated user profiles have preferences for moviesover electronic books, movie content items may have a higher priorityrank than electronic books.

In the above description, numerous details are set forth. It will beapparent, however, to one of ordinary skill in the art having thebenefit of this disclosure, that embodiments of the invention may bepracticed without these specific details. In some instances, well-knownstructures and devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than indetail, in order to avoid obscuring the description.

Some portions of the detailed description are presented in terms ofalgorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bitswithin a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desiredresult. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physicalquantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take theform of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored,transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It hasproven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, torefer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters,terms, numbers, or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the above discussion, itis appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as “receiving”, “determining”, “identifying”, “sending”,“removing”, “selecting”, “adding”, “multiplying”, “setting”, or thelike, refer to the actions and processes of a computer system, orsimilar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transformsdata represented as physical (e.g., electronic) quantities within thecomputer system's registers and memories into other data similarlyrepresented as physical quantities within the computer system memoriesor registers or other such information storage, transmission or displaydevices.

Embodiments of the invention relate to an apparatus for performing theoperations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for thedisclosed purposes, or it may comprise a general purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computerreadable storage medium, such as, but not limited to, any type of diskincluding floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magnetic-opticaldisks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs,EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of non-transitory mediasuitable for storing electronic instructions (e.g., media other than acarrier wave).

The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purposesystems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct a more specializedapparatus to perform the required method steps. The structure for avariety of these systems will appear from the description above. Inaddition, embodiments of the present invention are not described withreference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciatedthat a variety of programming languages may be used to implement theteachings of the invention as described herein.

It is to be understood that the above description is intended to beillustrative, and not restrictive. Many other embodiments will beapparent to those of skill in the art upon reading and understanding theabove description. The scope of the invention should, therefore, bedetermined with reference to the appended claims, along with the fullscope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by one or moreprocessors, information from a computing device associated with a userprofile, the information identifying the user profile, a first list ofcontent items stored on the computing device, a first content state of afirst episode in a series of episodes, and a storage state of storagespace on the computing device, wherein the first list of content itemscomprises an identifier associated with the first episode in the series;determining, by the one or more processors, an amount of available freespace on the computing device using the storage state; determining, bythe one or more processors, that the first episode has been played usingthe first content state of the first episode; generating, by the one ormore processors, a modified list of content items using the amount ofavailable free space and the first content state by adding an identifierassociated with a second episode in the series and removing theidentifier associated with the first episode; and sending, by the one ormore processors, a command to the computing device, wherein the commandcauses the computing device to download the second episode consistentwith the modified list and without the computing device first receivinga download request from an application, executed by the computingdevice, to download the second episode in the series.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the one or more processors,additional information from a second computing device associated withthe user profile, the additional information identifying the userprofile, a third list of content items stored on the second computingdevice, a second content state of the second episode, and a secondstorage state of storage space on the second computing device, whereinthe third list of content items comprises the identifier associated withthe second episode; determining, by the one or more processors, that thesecond episode has been played using the second content state of thesecond episode; generating, by the one or more processors, a fourth listof content items using the amount of available free space of the storagespace of the computing device, the first content state, and the secondcontent state, wherein the fourth list comprises an identifierassociated with a third episode in the series, the third episode beingan unsolicited content item, wherein the identifier associated with thesecond episode has been removed from the fourth list; and sending, bythe one or more processors, a second command to the computing device,wherein the second command causes the computing device to download thethird episode consistent with the fourth list and without the computingdevice first receiving a download request from the application todownload the third episode in the series.
 3. The method of claim 1,further comprising: receiving, by the one or more processors, additionalinformation from the computing device associated with the user profileand a second user profile, the additional information identifying thesecond user profile, a third list of content items stored on thecomputing device, the third list of content items corresponding to thesecond user profile, a second content state of a first episode in asecond series of episodes, and the storage state; and determining, bythe one or more processors, an amount of available free space on thecomputing device using the storage state; determining, by the one ormore processors, that the first episode in the second series has beenplayed using the second content state; generating, by the one or moreprocessors, a fourth list of content items using the amount of availablefree space and the second content state, wherein the fourth listcomprises an identifier associated with a second episode in the secondseries, the second episode in the second series being an unsolicitedcontent item, wherein the identifier associated with the first episodein the second series has been removed from the fourth list; and sending,by the one or more processors, a second command to the computing device,wherein the second command causes the computing device to download thesecond episode consistent with the fourth list and without the computingdevice first receiving a second download request from the application todownload the second episode in the second series.
 4. The method of claim3, further comprising: associating the user profile and the second userprofile with a common user account.
 5. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: receiving, by the one or more processors, a download requestfrom the computing device to download the first episode in the series;and sending, by the one or more processors, the first episode to thecomputing device.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: sending,by the one or more processors, the first list of content items, thefirst list comprising the identifier associated with the first episodeto be stored on the computing device associated with the user profile;and receiving, by the one or more processors, a synchronization requestfrom the computing device, the synchronization request to synchronizecontent items stored on the computing device with the first list.
 7. Themethod of claim 6, further comprising: determining a first number of thecontent items stored on the computing device having a particularproperty; determining a second number of content items on a secondcomputing device having the particular property; determining that thefirst number plus the second number of content items equals a value thatexceeds an electronic content threshold; and sending a deletenotification to the computing device to cause the computing device todelete one or more unsolicited content items stored on the computingdevice.
 8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: sending a seconddelete notification to the second computing device to cause the secondcomputing device to delete one or more unsolicited electronic contentitems stored on the second computing device.
 9. The method of claim 1,further comprising: generating, by the one or more processors, amodified second list of content items associated with a second computingdevice; removing, by the one or more processors, an identifierassociated with the first episode from the modified second list; andsending, by the one or more processors, a second command to the secondcomputing device, wherein the second command causes the second computingdevice to delete the first episode consistent with the modified secondlist.
 10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating, by theone or more processors, a modified second list of content itemsassociated with a second computing device; removing, by the one or moreprocessors, an identifier associated with the first episode from themodified second list; and sending, by the one or more processors, asecond command to the second computing device, wherein the secondcommand causes the second computing device to delete the first episodeand download the second episode in the series consistent with themodified second list and without the second computing device firstreceiving a download request from an application, executed by the secondcomputing device, to download the second episode in the series.
 11. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a third list of contentfor the user profile from a first content source, the third list orderedin a first ranking order; and receiving a fourth list of content for theuser profile from a second content source, the fourth list ordered in asecond ranking order, wherein the generating the modified list furthercomprises selecting an identifier associated with the at least onecontent item from the third list of content or the fourth list ofcontent, wherein a sum of a size of the selected at least one contentitem and a size of the second episode is less than the amount ofavailable free space.
 12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:identifying a content preference for the user profile, wherein thecontent preference indicates a content type most likely to be selectedfor the user profile based on past selections for the user profile,wherein the generating the modified list further comprises selecting acontent item according to the content preference for the user profile,wherein the content type of the content item matches the contentpreference.
 13. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, bythe one or more processors, additional information from a secondcomputing device associated with a second user profile, the second userprofile being different from the user profile; determining, by the oneor more processors, that the second user profile is associated with asame user account as the user profile; generating, by the one or moreprocessors, an additional list of content items for the second userprofile, and wherein the generating the additional list furthercomprises: selecting an identifier associated with the at least onecontent item from the additional list; and adding the identifierassociated with the at least one content item to the modified list. 14.A system comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memoryincluding instructions that, when executed by the at least oneprocessor, cause the at least one processor to: receiving informationfrom a computing device associated with a user profile, the informationidentifying the user profile, a first list of content items stored onthe computing device, a first content state of a first episode in aseries of episodes, and a storage state of storage space on thecomputing device, wherein the first list of content items comprises anidentifier associated with the first episode in the series; determine anamount of available free space on the computing device using the storagestate; determine that the first episode has been played using the firstcontent state of the first episode; generate a modified list of contentitems using the amount of available free space and the first contentstate by adding an identifier associated with a second episode in theseries and removing the identifier associated with the first episode andsend a command to the computing device, wherein the command causes thecomputing device to download the second episode consistent with themodified list and without the computing device first receiving adownload request from an application, executed by the computing device,to download the second episode in the series.
 15. The system of claim14, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least oneprocessor, further cause the at least one processor to: receiveadditional information from a second computing device associated withthe user profile, the additional information identifying the userprofile, a third list of content items stored on the second computingdevice, a second content state of the second episode, and a secondstorage state of storage space on the second computing device, whereinthe third list of content items comprises the second episode; determinethat the second episode has been played using the second content stateof the second episode; generate a fourth list of content items using theamount of available free space of the storage space of the computingdevice, the first content state, and the second content state, whereinthe fourth list comprises an identifier associated with a third episodein the series, wherein the identifier associated with the second episodehas been removed from the fourth list; and send a second command to thecomputing device, wherein the second command causes the computing deviceto download the third episode consistent with the fourth list andwithout the computing device first receiving a download request from theapplication to download the third episode in the series.
 16. The systemof claim 14, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least oneprocessor, further cause the at least one processor to: generate amodified second list of content items associated with a second computingdevice; remove the identifier associated with the first episode from themodified second list; and send a second command to the second computingdevice, wherein the second command causes the second computing device todelete the first episode consistent with the modified second list. 17.The system of claim 14, generate a modified second list of content itemsassociated with a second computing device; remove the identifierassociated with the first episode from the modified second list; andsend a second command to the second computing device, wherein the secondcommand causes the second computing device to delete the first episodeand download the second episode in the series consistent with themodified second list and without the second computing device firstreceiving a download request from an application, executed by the secondcomputing device, to download the second episode in the series.
 18. Amethod comprising: receiving, by one or more processors, informationfrom a first computing device associated with a user profile, theinformation identifying the user profile, a first list of content itemsstored on the first computing device, a first content state of a firstepisode in a series of episodes, and a storage state of storage space onthe first computing device, wherein the first list of content itemscomprises an identifier associated with the first episode in the series;receiving, by the one or more processors, additional information from asecond computing device associated with the user profile, the additionalinformation identifying the user profile, a second list of content itemsstored on the second computing device, a second content state of asecond episode in the series, and a second storage state of storagespace on the second computing device, wherein the second list of contentitems comprises an identifier associated with the second episode in theseries; determining, by the one or more processors, an amount ofavailable free space on the first computing device using the storagestate; determining, by the one or more processors, that the firstepisode has been played using the first content state; determining, bythe one or more processors, that the second episode has been playedusing the second content state; determining, by the one or moreprocessors, a third list of content items using the amount of availablefree space, the first content state, and the second content state,wherein the third list comprises an identifier associated with a thirdepisode in the series, wherein the identifier associated with the firstepisode has been removed from the third list; and sending, by the one ormore processors, the third list to the first computing device, whereinthe second list comprises a modified list of content items that causesthe first computing device to the second episode and download the thirdepisode in the series in response to the receipt of the third list andwithout the first computing device first receiving a download requestfrom an application, executed by the first computing device, to downloadthe third episode in the series.
 19. The method of claim 18, furthercomprising: determining, by the one or more processors, a modified thirdlist of content items associated with the second computing device;removing, by the one or more processors, the identifier associated withthe first episode and the identifier associated with the second episodefrom the modified third list; and sending, by the one or moreprocessors, the modified third list to the second computing device, thesecond computing device to delete the first episode and the secondepisode in response to the receipt of the modified third list.
 20. Themethod of claim 18, further comprising: determining, by the one or moreprocessors, a modified third list of content items associated with thesecond computing device; removing, by the one or more processors, theidentifier associated with the first episode and the identifierassociated with the second episode from the modified third list; andsending, by the one or more processors, the modified third list to thesecond computing device, the second computing device to delete the firstepisode and the second episode and download the third episode in theseries in response to the receipt of the modified third list and withoutthe second computing device first receiving a download request from auser of the second computing device to download the third episode in theseries.